Reine, Reine, go away
by BlackBlood789
Summary: Her first memories contains the father that left her and her mother for "freedom". Then after rediscovering him, confusion overwhelmes her mind as she runs off to spite her cannibalistic father, her F.B.I. Agent mother, and herself. Rated T.
1. Little Reine Drop

I remember my father. I remember as far back as when I was about three. I don't remember much of him though. One of my first memories was my father, my mother and I. I cherish that memory to my fullest, knowing that it could never happen again.

I remember seeing snow for the first time. I was staring outside the window as my father held me in his arms and spoke to my mother. I wasn't paying attention to what they were saying and I kept staring at the snow. Then I poked my father in the shoulder and when his attention turned to me, I pointed outside. "What's that daddy?" I had asked him. I felt him chuckle and he set me down on the couch, which was against the wall facing away from the window. I stood on the couch as he held me against his stomach so I wouldn't fall.

"That's snow, little Reine Drop," he had said. His nickname for me was little Reine Drop and I thought it was the best nickname at the time. I looked up at him.

"What's snow?" I asked, curiosity being my weakness at the time. My mother joined my father standing in the window.

"Snow is frozen rain, Reine. You see, when it gets cold outside, rain gets cold and it freezes while it falls. That's what snow is." my mother explained for my father. I saw him chuckle and kiss her forehead. I turned around and held my arms up to be picked up, and my father picked me up. Smiling, I buried my face into his neck and giggled.

"Snow is pretty." I said to him. He looked back out and gently leaned his head on mine.

"Yes it is, little Reine Drop, yes it is." I loved my father very much, just as much as he loved me.

But...despite how much he loved my mother and I, I heard them arguing about exactly a year later.

"You can't leave her! You can't leave me!" I listened to my mother shout at him. Tears welled in my eyes as I listened around the corner. The only thing that kept me from sobbing my eyes out was my father's calm, collected voice, despite my mother's angry tone.

"Clarice, I cannot be caught again. I _will not_. If I get captured again, it's guaranteed that Reine would get hurt, that _you_ would get hurt." he said sorrowfully. I heard my mother turn and walk about a few steps and stifle some sobs threatening to escape her throat. I peeked around the corner and saw my father walk up slowly behind her and hold her gently. "I'll be back, Clarice. I'm not abandoning you or Reine." he said softly in her brownish, orange hair. She sobbed once and covered her mouth to keep the rest from coming out.

"Remember when you asked me...if I would ever say 'Stop. If you love me, stop'? Well...I'm saying it now." she whispered to him. He pressed his forehead against the back of her head and rocked her back and forth slightly.

"I was never going to listen anyway..." he chuckled. She laughed a bit and turned around and hugged him. His arms enveloped her and they just stood there, while I watched...

The next day, he packed his things and left early in the morning. I was awake and when I saw him get into his car, I jumped out of bed and ran down the steps and out into the cold. His car was already out of the driveway and down the street, and I was left there standing in the snow...

I haven't seen him since, and I lost every visual memory of him in the next year.


	2. It's Too Bad

"Reine! It's six in the morning, you'll miss your bus again if you sleep any later!" I heard my mother shout as she entered the room. I groaned and pulled the blanket over my head before she had a chance to turn on the light. She saw my reaction to her moving near the light and violently pulled the blankets away from me, threw them on the g round, and turned on the light she went to turn on AND the one on the other side of the room. I reached for my pillow, but my mother took that before I had a chance to. "Up! Now! Your bus comes at 6:30!" she yelled at me as she left to go prepare for her job as well.

I lazily rolled out of bed and fell on the blankets at the foot of my bed. I stood up slowly and staggered over to the dresser. I pulled out a pair of dark blue skin tight jeans with ripped knees, a black t-shirt with the words "Come to the dark side, we have cookies..." across the chest, and black socks to match my Anarchic Boots. I threw off my pajama clothes and pulled on what I tore from the dresser. I rushed into the bathroom to do my hair and brush my teeth. I brushed my teeth first. About a year ago, I got my braces taken off so they were straight as anything. My brown hair was also naturally straight, which helped me a lot. I would look horrible with curls, let alone waves.

I ran out the door and to the living room, where my bag and coat lay. I slipped my coat on and ran out the door, calling out a farewell to my mother as I slammed the door behind me. I ran to the bus stop and just caught the yellow bus driving down the street. I nodded a hello to my bus driver and took my usual solo seat third seat from the front, turning on my iPod and listening to Too Bad by Nickelback. It reminded me of how my father left us alone.

_Father's hands were lined with dirt_

_From long days in the field_

_And mother's hands are serving meals_

_In a cafe on Main Street_

_With mouths to feed_

_Just trying to keep clothing on out backs_

_And all I hear about is_

_And how it's so bad, it's so bad_

_It's too bad, it's stupid_

_Too late, so wrong, so long_

_It's too bad that we had no time to rewind_

_Let's walk, let's talk_

_Let's talk..._

I never really forgave my father for walking out on us. He never said bye to me. I don't think he even looked at me before he left. My mother worked in the F.B.I., not in a cafe, although she did save people who served in cafes I suppose. She has good money and I'm getting a job...at a cafe, because I'm just obsessed with this song that much. I barely ever spoke to my mother about my father and I truly and sincerely wished I could just...talk with him. I missed him so much, I can't even stress how much I miss him.

_You left without saying goodbye_

_Although I'm sure you tried_

_You call the house from time to time_

_To make sure we're alive_

_But you weren't there_

_Right when I needed you the most_

_And now I dream about it_

_And how it's so bad, it's so bad_

_It's too bad, it's stupid_

_Too late, so wrong, so long_

_It's too bad that we had no time to rewind_

_Let's walk, let's talk_

_Let's talk_

_It's too bad, it's stupid_

_Too late, so wrong, so long_

_It's too bad that we had no time to rewind_

_Let's walk, let's talk_

_Let's talk_

He never did say goodbye to me, and I doubt he tried. He called my mother sometimes, but he never wanted to talk to me. Not ever. Not even when this one time, I was crying about someone beating the crap out of me at school and he called. My mother told him about it, and she told him to talk to me, and he wouldn't. She even tried to give me the phone while he was talking but he somehow noticed and he hung up before it got to my ear. I didn't go to school for the next few days because I was crying so hard for about a week.

_Father's hands are lined with guilt_

_For tearing us apart_

_Guess it turned out in the end_

_Just look at where we are_

_We made it out, we still got clothing on our backs_

_And now I scream about it_

_And how it's so bad, it's so bad_

_It's so bad, it's so bad_

_It's too bad, it's stupid_

_Too late, so wrong, so long_

_It's too bad that we had no time to rewind_

_Let's walk, let's talk_

_It's too bad, it's stupid_

_Too late, so wrong, so long_

_It's too bad that we had no time to rewind_

_Let's walk, let's talk_

_Long time, let's walk, let's talk._

I want him to regret leaving me all alone all those years ago. I want him and I to just talk. So he can understand what happened when he left and how his leaving made it worse than it should have been. Honestly, I just wanted to scream at him about it. My mother was angry at him too, no doubt about it, but still, I mean, she still loved him like I did, maybe a lot more than I did. Because she eventually forgave him. I can't as easily.

The bus arrived at school and I slid into the line the other teenagers created to leave the bus and walked away, my music still blaring in my ears. I walked inside the school and met up with a few of my friends. I don't know how I ever made such weird friends. I mean, seriously, they're all freakin' insane. My friend Jacob saw me and stood up, waving his hand, signaling for me to come over. Jacob's problem was Bipolar Disorder. If something didn't go as planned or goes in the exact opposite direction, well, he kind of goes berserk. One time, his girlfriend broke up with him and if I hadn't have been passing by while he was shouting, pointing out all the things they did, he would've hurt her. I yelled at him a lot because of that and she moved to a different school and he got two In School Suspensions. And ironically enough, Jacob had the face of a teenager who could control his emotions, which, if you're his friend, is obviously not the case.

"Reine! You won't believe what John just did!" he said as I approached. I smiled and looked at John, whose problem was obsessive gaming. He was constantly playing Pokemon or something on his Nintendo DS. But now, he was not holding his DS, he was pointing into an orange book. The book immediately closed as soon as I tried to look. John took the book into his arms.

"She can't see that!" he shouted. "She's a girl!"

"I know I know but she's gotta see this! He's a nut!" Jacob said as he tried to retrieve the book from the young gamer. When John wasn't looking, I snatched the book from his arms and ran over to Jacob.

"What page is it on?" I said as I began opening it behind Jacob. John stood up and tried to run around the table to get me, but Jacob stood up and stopped him before he could get halfway around.

"Page 282," he said as he restrained John.

"Don't look at it!" he said pleadingly, but as my weakness entails, I could not. Curiosity was my greatest weakness. I swear, someday it'll be the death of me.

"Why not? What's so bad?" I asked as I found the designated page. I opened it, and regretted it. This book was a book about serial killers, and a well known cannibal happened to be on page 282. What made me regret turning to the page was the graphic images of his victims. I couldn't help but stare, stare at all the mangled bodies that were found. Then I started reading about the killer, and I accidentally read aloud.

"'Dr. Hannibal Lector was a psychopathic genius. His psychological techniques were unstoppable when it came to trusting. Leading his life as a psychologist, Lector's past remains a mystery to all, never revealing his past to anyone.'" Before I could read anymore, John somehow escaped Jacob's grip and snatched the book back.

"Would you stop?! Jesus Christ I don't want to know about a living serial killer!" he yelled at me. Jacob began laughing and sat down, burying his face in his arms and laughing on and on. I ignored him and kept my attention on John.

"'Living'? You mean this guy is alive?" I asked worriedly. He nodded.

"Yeah, but I don't think we gotta worry. There's no record of him harming anyone under the age of twenty five." he concluded. I wasn't convinced.

"Then that puts our _parents_ in danger, right? Jacob stop laughing!" I shouted at him. He tried to calm his laughing and listen. "And what the hell is so funny anyway?"

"Haha...I read something about your mom in that book." My attention went back to the book and John was already on the same page as me. We flipped open the book immediately and searched the book for my mother's name. John found it.

"'Ms. Clarice Starling, a renowned F.B.I. Agent, interrogated the cannibal while searching for the rampant serial killer, Buffalo Bill. Starling, a trainee for the F.B.I. at the time, had taken a great risk for her sanity while talking to Lector several times. Each time, he would give her clues, and each time, he would find something out about her. Some say he could've had feelings for the trainee and some say he could've playing around with her mind, although knowing Lector, keeping us in the dark is amusing him in a great fashion.'"

I stared at the words before me. I closed the book after reading a fifth time and put it in my backpack. "Can you come to my house after school?" I asked him. John's eyes widened and Jacob's eyes took on a confused look.

"What are you doing?" John asked me. He was always one for school work.

I looked at the two of them strongly. "I need help with some research on Hannibal Lector."


	3. Well Hello Reine

School went by rather slowly, maybe it was the anticipation that I would learn about a serial killer that my _mother _associated with. I also wanted to learn more about the guy who caught Lector, what was his name, Will Graham? Whatever his name is, I'll find him and ask him and stuff. Maybe I myself can capture him just like him. To keep my mom safe, you know? I wanted to be known for something great. Something that everyone will recognize when I cross their vision. They'll say "Hey, you're Reine Starling, aren't you? The one who captured Hannibal Lector to protect your mother? Wow, can I have your autograph?" and I'll say "Yeah, of course you can. Can I give you anything else?"

After school, Jacob, John and I walked to my house in the cold snow. Stupid snow. It was too cold for this. Snow always reminded me of my father. Cold. Like his damned heart. "Yo, you alright, Reine?" Jacob asked me. I looked at him, realizing that I had been glaring at the ground while I was walking. Wow, go Reine.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I said. John shrugged and Jacob wrapped his arm around my shoulder, at which I responded "Get your arm off me or I'll chew it off." Jacob immediately retreated his arm and we all laughed.

"You're turning into Lector!" he shouted and laughed. I didn't laugh, and neither did John. That was barely a joke. Jacob had a crude and unfunny sense of humor. Sometimes he would notice things and he would laugh about it, assuming we understood the joke. It was annoying. Sometimes we wouldn't know why he was laughing and he would only use riddles. He got on John's nerves worse than mine because John _lives_ with Jacob. They're twin brothers and polar opposites. John is a quiet, secluded kid. Jacob is outgoing and quite loud.

The subject was dropped as we walked onto the lawn. Surprisingly enough, my mother wasn't home. That complicates things, but hell, what she didn't know wouldn't hurt her...or me. I unlocked the door with a spare key and let my two friends inside. I locked the door when everyone was inside and we all retreated to my bedroom. Running inside, I nearly tripped on the blanket that was still sprawled out on the ground. I threw it on the bed and opened the window a crack so I would be able to hear my mom driving up. I began playing music in case I didn't hear her coming through the door and it would muffle the boys' voices if they were talking.

"Alright, where do we start?" John said as he pulled out his laptop from his backpack. I pulled out the book and looked for some sort of URL address to go to. Sadly enough, I could find nothing. Only the publishing company's web address.

"Let's head to Google first, see what else we can get that the book didn't give us." I said. Jacob threw his backpack down onto the bed and sat next to it.

"What do I do?" he asked.

"Keep a look out for my mom. I don't want her to know I'm researching this guy."

"Why not?"

I looked up from the book. "Because she's smart. She should've caught onto Lector's feelings for her and if the last time she saw him ended as badly as we're reading, then she'd flip if she found out I'm doing this." Jacob nodded and stood up, making his way to the window to keep a lookout for my mom. When I wanted to keep something from my mom, I meant to. I made sure there was no way something could happen. I kept a lot from my mother and most times, she would have no idea how many secrets I kept from her a day.

"Hey Reine, check this out." John said across the room. I set the book down and sat next to him. The website that John had up was Wikipedia, describing Lector and what the doctors at the mental ward he was kept at thought about him. Some of these people are still alive today! Barney, one of the doctors who spoke to him every now and then, my mother was listed, but she was not an option, some men in the same hallway as Lector, and Will Graham.

"We should talk to these people." I told John. "I want an insight on Lector so I can keep him away from my mom." John nodded and began writing down the names.

"Uh, Reine, does your mom have a boyfriend?" Jacob asked quietly. I shook my head.

"No, why?"

"Because there's a guy walking up to the house next to her. They came in your mom's car."

Panic arose in my system and I shut off the music as quickly as humanly possible. I violently closed John's laptop and walked over to my bedroom door, listening for anything from my mother's mouth or her "boyfriend's". I did not like being confused and or in panic.

As I listened for the front door to open and close, I began to calm myself down. It could be Crawford. He came here every now and then. Maybe it's the boys' father, trying to find them. That'd be bad. But sure enough, my mother had no boyfriend. She was all for my father, who, unfortunately for my mother and I, was not available at any time.

The door opened and then closed, and I slipped out of the bedroom, signaling for my friends to be quiet and stay in the room. I crept silently down the stairs, listening to my mother's voice as she spoke to this unknown man, also taking note of the gun on the desk that I couldn't get without being discovered.

"See? She's not home. Could you leave now?" she growled at the man.

"Oh no, Clarice. I want to be here when she gets here. I'm sure Reine misses me so."

I lifted an eyebrow.

"I doubt it. She hates you."

"Does she know who I am exactly?"

"Well, no but-"

"Then I doubt it." and then silence. I heard footsteps and the front door opened.

"Leave." my mother ordered. At first, nothing happened, then there were footsteps, and the door closed. _Did he leave_? I asked myself. Only one way to find out without being obvious. I walked out from around the corner.

"Hey mom, I-" and I froze instantly. There was a man kissing my mother, then when I caught his attention, his cool blue eyes turned and locked onto mine. My mother pushed away from this man and I stood there, staring at him.

Hannibal Lector.

I began cursing so many profanities in my head. Some weren't even words I was so shocked and afraid. This was unbelievable. I was frozen in my spot, even when he turned around, keeping his arm firmly around my mother's waist. My heart began to race as I thought of all the things that could happen right now. He could charge at me, strap me to a chair, and eat my mother in front of me. He could knock me out and discover my friends in my room and eat them whilst I was out cold on the floor. He could rape my mother. Terror rose in my system as I stared into this man's eyes.

"Well hello Reine." he said smoothly. My hand twitched slightly, an effort to get me to move from my spot. Bad. Bad. Bad. I continued to stare as my hands began to form fists at last.

"Get. Out." I said, reaching behind me slowly to get the gun. Lector quickly retreated his hand from my mother's waist and was almost magically holding a pistol aimed at me. I froze as I felt my hands begin to tremble. I felt like I was going to throw up.

"Lector! Stop!" my mother shouted, trying to get the gun, but he wrapped his arm around her and held her against him, grabbing her arm so she wouldn't lash out and try to grab it.

"Hands behind your head, Reine." he instructed. I obeyed and slowly and carefully raised my hands. I looked to my right, in an attempt to fool him. Jump out the window through the thin glass. If this guy knows my name, he's gotta know the layout, so he knows what I'm looking at. I looked at him as quickly as I looked to the right. Was he falling for it. I jerked to the right, and just as it looked like I was going to the window, I planted my foot and pushed to the left. He fell for it. He fired the gun at the ground where my foot would've been if I had kept going and couldn't prepare the gun fast enough. I disappeared behind the wall I hid behind and ran up the steps. Panic caused me to run faster. I ran into my room and slammed the door, locked it, then pulled my dresser in the way of the door.

Once that was accomplished, I turned and saw Jacob and John staring at me weird. "What happened?" Jacob asked. I heard Hannibal running up the steps. That means he had to have heard Jacob ask that question.

"Reine-" John started, but I held up a finger and began waving my arms around wildly.

"He's downstairs. Get in the closet." I said quietly, making it seem like I was trying to keep him from hearing me. Jacob rushed over to the door and I began jumping up and down to get his attention. It worked and he turned to me as he was opening the closet door. I pointed at the doorway and began whispering.

"Out the window. Open it fast when I say go." I whispered. It was quiet enough in the house for them to hear but too quiet for someone to hear outside the door. John walked silently over to the window and placed his hands on the window, ready to push it up. I took Jacob's place next to the door and opened it all the way. Jacob tiptoed over to his twin and they were both ready to push it open. I waited a moment and began pushing things around in the closet, then turned toward the door.

"Go go go! He'll get us!" I whispered toward the door, making sure he heard it. I lifted my hand violently as the signal for go. I slammed the closet door and they pushed the window open all the way. They both slammed against the walls at the same time and the twins began climbing out the window. I walked over to the window and helped Jacob out as soon as John hit the ground. I hoped my mother wasn't in the kitchen where she could look out the window and see people falling from the sky. Then again, I doubt she would care. I'm running from a cannibal and if she had any sense, she'd be out the door already!

Jacob hit the ground with a thud and I crawled out the window and fell over on top of Jacob, who groaned loudly. Too loudly. I hit him for being so loud. "Jacob!" I scolded as I stood up. I looked up, realizing that my face was right next to the window and saw Hannibal staring back at me, which caused me to scream and fall backwards. He didn't look very happy. I was stunned and I couldn't move, my fear paralyzing me. How did he get there that fast?! Is he super human or something? Gah! MOVE, REINE, MOVE!!!

"Get up, Reine!" John shouted as he came over and picked me up bridal style. I wrapped my arms around his neck as he ran after Jacob, and I passed out from the shock of the day.


	4. Go Home, Stay, or Run

I woke up in a daze. Everything was blurred and I couldn't focus on anything. I felt like I was just floating in midair. Every muscle was relaxed, even my brain felt loose. I groaned and sat up slowly. Feeling began coming back. The ground I was laid on dipped downward to my weight. My vision started flowing back slowly and a blue wall came into view.

"Reine? Hey John! She's up!" I heard a voice call. It was loud and I groaned and closed my eyes, lifting my hands to my ears to block out any more loud noises.

"Quiet down, Jake, you're too loud." a more quieter voice was heard. I opened my eyes as they began yelling at each other in hushed voices. I looked to my left and saw Jacob and John arguing about the noise level. It was really annoying when they argued.

"Shut up..." I murmured. John immediately abandoned the conversation with Jacob and sat down next to me, which was on a bed as I later discovered.

"You alright?" he asked me gently. I uncovered my ears and looked at him. My vision felt much better, but it wasn't perfect. I smiled and nodded. Without hesitation, I attempted to get off the bed, but once I reached my feet, I lost my balance and Jacob caught me before I fell. I was hanging there loosely in his arms while I tried to regain my balance. As if on instinct, Jacob took my arm and threw it around his neck so I could try out for balance gradually.

"So?" Jacob asked me. I looked up at him. "What do we do now? A cannibal is most likely at your house and is most likely trying to find you." I looked back at the ground. What _do_ we do? Honestly, it was hard to think in my circumstances.

"Uh, what are our options?" I said with a bit more strength in my voice.

"Well, we could go back and find your mom." John asked. I shook my head.

"No, if Hannibal Lector likes my mom, then he won't hurt her, right?" John nodded and began thinking again.

"We could stay here, at least until your mom calls." Jacob said. I shook my head again.

"My mom is looking for me. Lector is probably trying to help her or something." I said, trying to get my balance back again. And as expected, my attempt failed and I felt my knees buckle under me and Jacob held me up so I wouldn't fall. "Where are we anyway?" I asked.

"We're at our house. At least two mile run away from your house. Do you know how long it took us to get here away from a road? And you're no light load, Reine." Jacob complained.

"Well if we can't go back, and we can't stay, I guess that means we have to run, right?" John asked. I looked up at him. This concerned me. Because if what I read wasn't true, Lector would be hurting my mother right now. But staying here would get nothing accomplished. I pointed at the bed and pinched the bridge of my nose so I could calm my thoughts. Going home isn't an option. Lector could still be there and I'm not about to find out. I will not have a cannibal pointing a gun at me again. Running sounds like a pretty good idea. Lector won't have any idea where we're going, then again, neither will we. If we're going to run, we need a destination. Where will we go?

"Think of a place we need to go. If we're running, then we need a place to go." I said, trying to regain full consciousness. The room went silent and we all loitered there in Jacob's and John's room. Where _would_ we go? My mind was in too much of a haze to think clearly, so of course I couldn't think of the answer. Luckily for me, John thought of it first.

He pulled out a paper from his pocket and handed me the paper. I scoffed. "I can't see straight right now, what is it?" I asked.

"It's the list of names you said we were going to talk to. We could find them since we have no definite destination." he suggested. Jacob began nodding violently.

"Yeah yeah yeah! We could go interrogate those people on the list and we can find out what we can about Lector, then we can figure out what he'll do or something!" he said happily. I smiled at them.

"Then let's do that. You guys pack up what you can. John, are you the one with the $50,000 in the bank or...never mind do you still have it?" I stood up, telling then what to do.

The plan was this: The two of them were going to pack what they could. Since my home is unavailable to me, I cannot get my clothing. So I was going to share a couple of jeans and shirts with them. My jacket is _not_ leaving my body whatsoever. We're all going to drive down to the bank and withdrawal $5,000 so we can stay in motels and pay for gas. If we run out of money, we can only hope that they won't treat us like runaways and close off our bank accounts. We were going to find where each person lived, go there, and talk. Then we'd move onto the next person and do research. We'd go to the places Hannibal went and we'd find out what each place has in common and we'd hide where that thing wasn't and where we'd think he wouldn't think we'd go or something. It seemed good when we talked about it. But I couldn't help thinking as I gathered food from the kitchen about Hitler and World War II. The treaty they made to limit Germany's military power and keep everyone from fighting and to keep anymore wars from happening. Well that didn't go well because once Hitler started talking, all of Germany started talking. And when Germany started talking, we ended up in a Holocaust and WWII.

This looks good on paper, but someone's going to do something to screw things up.

We drove off before the boys' parents could get home. We had food in the backseat next to Jacob. John was driving and I was looking through a phone book we found in the corner of the twins' basement. Will Graham wasn't listed in the book. Well he was but there were a lot listed. We decided to skip him and go to Barney, who currently lived in Philadelphia.

"That's a real long drive. We're just leaving Nashville now, you know." John pointed out. "It'll take about half a day, maybe more."

I nodded. "We have time. I'm dead sure of it." I said, closing the phone book and resting my head against the glass. Then a really bad realization came to mind. I left that book in my room turned to page 282. He'll know where we're going because I circled a couple of the names of the people we were going to talk to.

About two hours later, the sun was setting and John had this thing about driving at night, so we were going to call it a night and find a motel to stay at. We found one and we threw our stuff on the beds. There were only two. "I call this one!" I shouted as I jumped on the bed. The boys began fighting over who would sleep on the other bed, which was definitely something to laugh at. I left them to their fighting and went to take a shower.

The water was warm, but I didn't want to pay too much for the use of the shower. I stripped down and jumped into the shower, feeling the water wash away the problems I had, even if for a little bit. It was now that I realized that I still had my iPod in my jacket. Smiling and anticipating the music that would fill my ears as soon as I left the shower, I cleaned my body and washed my hair. Once out and clothed, I stayed in the bathroom and listened to music, just thinking, just daydreaming. I did that sometimes. I just thought about things for no reason.

_For a while I thought I fell asleep_

_Lying motionless inside a dream_

_Then rising suddenly, I felt a chilling breath upon me_

_She softly whispered in my ear "Forsaken"_

_Forsaken_

_I have come for you tonight_

_Awaken_

_Look in my eyes and take my hand_

_Give yourself up to me_

My mother was okay, right? I mean, if Lector really does like her, then he wouldn't hurt her. Right? I leaned my head back against the counter and closed my eyes, trying to distract myself.

_I waited painfully for not to fall again_

_Trying to silence the fear within me_

_Out of the nightly mist, I felt a stinging kiss_

_And saw a crimson stain on her lips_

_I have to know your name_

_Where have I seen your face before_

_My dear one don't you be afraid_

_Forsaken_

_I have come for you tonight_

_Awaken_

_Look in my eyes and take my hand_

_Give yourself up to me_

It wasn't working. I couldn't tear my thoughts away from Hannibal. I kept thinking that maybe he didn't like her as much as he could've thought and changed his mind on the subject. I kept worrying about her. She was my mother and she was already hurt before if that wasn't enough for him. My father left her and now he's trying to bring up these feelings from inside? Bullshit. I hated Lector already.

_Take me far away_

_Close your eyes and hold your breath_

_To the ends of the earth_

_Forsaken_

_I have come for you tonight_

_Awaken_

_Look in my eyes and take my hand_

_Forsaken_

_Fly away with me tonight_

_Awaken_

_Renew my life, now you are mine._

_Give yourself up to me_

I felt tears roll down my eyes and I felt a sob urging its way through my throat. That man could kill my mother, and here I was, running away to find out about this man in the hopes of saving my mother. Well that isn't going to work out very well if he's already killed her! Why am I even bringing John and Jacob with me? I'm risking their lives bringing them with because if Hannibal gets me, then he'll eat them and make me watch. They've always stuck beside me and I've never been able to say no when they offered their help. I'm so selfish, I can't even say no to help. I'm always depending on someone to help me and obviously, that's not working very well.

I heard knocking on the door and I kept silent. I was on the verge of tears and if I opened my mouth, I was sure I would burst into tears. The knocking came again and I pulled the ear phones out of my head, trying to calm myself down so I could answer them. "Reine? You in there?" Jacob's voice breached the door and I accidentally let out a sob. Jacob obviously heard because he tried opening the door. "Reine? You alright? Let me in!" he shouted.

"What's going on?" John asked him.

"I think she's crying." he said and in the next moment, Jacob rammed into the door, trying to break it down. After about three times of hitting the door, he stopped and the door began to click. I started to cry. They were picking the lock so they could come in and find me? Why?! What have I ever done for them, huh? What's so special about stupid me?

The door opened and John walked in slowly, making sure there was no blood anywhere and I wasn't hurt. He saw me crying and he knelt down next to me, Jacob following his movements on the other side of me. "Hey, it'll be alright, okay? Your mom's going to be fine." he said calmingly. I nodded and leaned my head on his shoulder. John hugged me and Jacob leaned over and hugged me too. I started to cry. This was too much. How can I keep going if this is what's going to happen every night?

"I can't take this..." I cried into John's shoulder. His hand rubbed my back and the three of us just sat there for the rest of the night...


	5. Contact with Family

BB789: I've been reading some of the reviews some people have sent me and I was overjoyed when I read them. I didn't think my story would become that popular that fast. Thank you all who have sent me reviews and added this story to your alerts, favs, and whatnot. It really motivates me.

The next morning, my cell phone rang. I was half asleep and I began to wonder why the hell I brought it. Someone could trace it or something. Without checking who it was, I opened it and held it to my head.

"Hello?" I slurred.

"REINE! Oh thank GOD you're alright!"

I sat up quickly and hung up. Without hesitation, I snapped the phone in half and pulled out the battery, threw it out the window, took the sim card, and snapped that in two. Jacob and John were staring at me funny.

"What happened?" John asked.

"My mom just called my phone." I said. Jacob shrugged.

"That's bad? Doesn't that mean she's okay?" he asked me. I nodded.

"Yeah but if she's able to call me, the F.B.I. is able to find us. We gotta get moving now." I said standing up and opening the suitcase where the clothes I was borrowing was and ran into the bathroom. We needed to leave before the cops came at us, which is something I cannot afford. We were this far, I'm not turning back. We were too close to Philly to turn back now.

Jacob climbed into the driver's seat after I was done changing and packing, then I jumped into the back seat and John in the passenger's seat. Of course John had to complain about driving at night, but I didn't care. I felt really bad. I mean, Jacob was right. My mother had called. That meant she was alright. Right? I sighed and I leaned my head against the window, which then John looked back at me and smiled.

"Hey, we'll call her from a pay phone when it gets brighter out, okay?" he asked. I nodded. I should do that. I should really do that. My eyes drifted closed and I laid down, moving around that annoying seatbelt that kept me from laying down properly, and I fell asleep...

I woke up violently because Jacob decided to drive off of the road as the "sun" got in his eyes. Yeah, sun my ass. Thing is, there was this girl wearing stuff that revealed way too much and Jacob stared at her and ran into a street sign that read "STOP". You have no idea how loudly John and I were screaming at him I mean, I nearly went deaf from my own screaming! Luckily enough, we were next to a pay phone.

John managed to pick up some change from beneath the car seats before Jacob drove off looking for a gas station. While I dialed the number, John went on to fixing the sign. It began ringing, and I leaned my head against the phone base and waited for my mother to pick up. We had no answering machine, so the rule was the call and if it rang fifteen times, hang up. It only rang seven when my mother answered.

"Hello?" her voice rang in my ear.

"Sorry about earlier, I panicked." I said nonchalantly.

"Reine? Oh thank god I thought you got hurt."

"I'm fine." I looked at my watch and began timing myself. This line was being traced. I needed to hang up before two minutes. "Listen mom, don't come after me okay?"

"What? I-"

"You're trying to trace the call, I know it. Listen, mom, I'm just trying to figure some things out okay? I won't say what because I'm thinking Crawford's tapping the line and listening in." I said bluntly. There was silence, then a shuffling, then a new voice.

"Reine, come home." I heard Crawford plead. I sighed.

"No. I'm busy. I'll come back when I have what I need."

"And what is that?"

I paused, looking at my watch. He was stalling me. I had thirty seconds left.

"Leverage." and I hung up the phone. I turned around and began helping John with the street sign.

"Did you get to talk to your mom?" he asked as we hoisted up the sign. I nodded.

"Yeah and Crawford too." I growled.

"So we have the F.B.I. after us and most likely the cops, a cannibal, and your mom?"

"Yup."

"This is going to get real interesting real fast." he joked. I laughed along with him.

"If it hasn't already."

Then the pay phone rang again. John and I stopped and stared at it. How could they have gotten the number? It takes a good two minutes to trace a call, unless my mom got caller ID while I was gone but I don't think she could've gotten that in a day, right? I don't even think pay phones came up on caller ID. I looked at John, then back at the pay phone. Should I answer it? I sighed and headed over to the phone. I grabbed the phone, and looked back at John. He nodded and fixed the sign completely before coming over to join me. I lifted the phone off the hanger and held it to my ear.

"Hello?"

"Well hello, Reine." My heart nearly stopped.

"You...how...did you get..."

"Because I can read it from here."

I gasped and looked all around. How could _he_ be here?! Already?! Hannibal Lector found me, and now what, was he toying with me? I turned my back on the forest behind me and the hikers who stared at my terrified face.

"You can't be-"

"On the contray, Reine, I am. I can see your fearful face right now. Although I must say, your gift for concealing fear is very well constructed."

I scoffed on impulse. "How did you find us so fast?"

"That boy next to you with the bad fashion sense, his name is Johnathan, correct?

"His name is _John_."

"Ah, I'm sorry. _John_ is very concerned about you, you know. You wouldn't consider him to have _feelings_ for you, hm?"

"That's bull. He's my friend, not my lover."

"I know I know, you're far too much like your mother to run away with a lover with a bad fashion sense."

"Shut up!" I couldn't take his attitude. If I knew where he was, it would make it much harder to run after him and kick his ass.

"Tsk tsk tsk, Reine Drop. Control your temper, and I might consider keeping in the shadows away from public eye view."

"You have no choice but to stay in the shadows. You're a wanted criminal and in case you haven't noticed, people in America are quite the tattletales."

"Well I really must be going. I wouldn't want you to figure out a way to trace a call, would I? Ta ta, Reine Drop." and the line went dead. I slammed it against the hanger and leaned my head back. So he found me? Great. Just great.

"Was that...Lector?" John asked.

I nodded.

"What now?"

I shrugged.

"Yo!" Jacob's voice came in. He drove up and pulled over. "Get in, I think I know where to go from here!" he said proudly. I sighed and jumped into the back to fall back asleep. I was tired. This morning sucked so far and maybe when I wake up, we'll be at Philly.


	6. Scared, Seperated, Stupified

BB789: I'm sorry I haven't updated in...ever. I've been grounded and my flash drive broke and that was where the story was. I managed to get it to work long enough so I could get the files onto my laptop...before I was grounded...a long time. Four F's on my 3rd marking period report card. Now I'm "working on a Creative Writing project" ha ha! Well, I am but I just wanted to do this first. I was nearly done the chapter anyway so I finished it. And here it is. Again, sorry for the prolonged delay.

_______________________________________________________________________

Something shook my shoulder gently and I opened my eyes to see what disturbed my most wanted sleep. There was Jacob standing over me, worried. "John told me you talked to Hannibal Lector. Is that true?" Is this why he woke me up? I sighed heavily and turned my head away, burying it into the seat.

"Yeah, he's around here somewhere. Can I sleep now?" I mumbled under my breath. He sighed and lifted my head, then sat down and laid my head on his lap. I would've hit him for this if I were awake, but I was too tired to care. Let him have at least a little satisfaction for once. I closed my eyes and curled up slightly. I sighed heavily and relaxed. Then opened an eye to look out the open door. We were parked somewhere. It wasn't crowded. It had to be at least two o clock.

"Where are we?" I asked Jacob, who had leaned his head back with his hands clasped behind it.

"Oh, I pulled over because I needed to take a piss. Then when I got back John told me to watch you. So I am." That barely answered my question.

"So where'd you pull over?"

"A rest stop. I think John's off going to the bathroom and then coming back with some food and money if he can find an ATM or something." and then Jacob's phone rang. He pulled out his phone and opened it, then I took it and snapped it in half and threw it outside. "Hey!" he shouted angrily. "What the hell was that for?!"

"Do you _want_ us to get traced?!" I yelled as I elbowed him in the gut. He grunted as he muttered a no. Then John walked into view holding two cups of coffee. His facial expression went from relaxed to angered.

"I told you not to wake her!" he said. Jacob gave him the finger as I sat up and he got out.

"I had to ask her a question!"

"That's so smart, Jacob! That's the greatest idea in the world! Just wake up the girl who just spoke to Lecter! Wake her up while she relaxes her conscious because-"

"Guys!" I shouted, causing them to look at me. "I'm fine. Just tired." I looked at John. "It wasn't as traumatizing as you think, it just scared me a little." and I turned to Jacob. "If you wake me up again you won't emerge from this car _unharmed_." I warned. I retreated back into the other side of the car and curled up, closing my eyes yet again and listening to them argue silently as John took his turn to drive and Jacob sat in the front and reclined his seat and fell asleep. I watched the trees pass us by for a while and fell asleep doing so.

_Daddy was a very nice man. Sometimes I would walk into his study and he'd be working. The people he helped were troubled. At least that's what daddy said. Some seemed find to me but others would never sit down right. They would move their fingers around their other fingers and laugh funny whey they got nervous. I thought they were funny so I laughed a bit to myself when I watched them, but daddy didn't laugh. I think that made them feel better. A lot better._

_Well, one day, this lady walked in crying. She started yelling for my daddy, who was at the market. He was usually at the market. My mommy came down and tried to calm her down, but she kept screaming at mommy, telling her she needed to talk to daddy. My mother walked out of the room to call his phone and I watched her from around the corner. She was very strange to me. She sat down and cried and tried very hard to calm down. She wasn't very funny today. Most days when I saw her, shed be speaking about all of the funny things she did one day. Like one time when she threw a coffee cup at her boss or another time where she started hitting a girl and then helped her up afterward and gave her a flower not a second later. That made me laugh and I got caught by my daddy._

_But today, she was very sad and sometimes when I see people sad, I get sad. So I watched her from around the corner and watched her. She was one of those people who played with their fingers. So that meant she was nervous. The lady's hair was messy, so she probably ran or was in a hurry. She started to talk to herself, so she was really upset and was trying to calm herself down. She was crying, so she went through something really bad and scared her or her heart hurt really badly._

_The lady rolled up her sleeves at one point and I saw a lot of purple spots on her arms and some thin red lines going across her arm. The thin red lines were cuts, I've seen them before. She said she did them herself. The purple spots were new to me though. They each looked like a bruise I had gotten from when I fell over one day. So they were bruises, so that means she got hurt._

_My father walked in through the front door and found the lady, and she looked up at him and ran up to him and hugged him, crying about a bunch of men who led her into an alley and did something. I didn't hear that part because daddy saw me and led her into his study. After a couple of hours, while I was making cookies with mommy, the lady left and daddy walked in smiling._

"_Is she okay daddy?" I asked him and he nodded._

"_For now, little Reine Drop. For now." he replied as he walked over to help us. _

"_What happened to her?" mommy asked. He shook his head._

"_Nothing a child needs to learn about at her age." he said, beckoning to me. Mommy got the idea and went back to mixing the ingredients and resumed teaching me how to make cookies._

My eyes slowly opened, finally on their own accord. I felt tears begin to well in my eyes as I remembered my father. He was always nice. Nice to me, nice to my mother, nice to his patients. He was a psychiatrist. So many people loved to talk to him. Sometimes, when I was caught eavesdropping, my father always smiled at me and invited me in. Once, someone was very upset and kinda numb about something that had happened a day or two ago and he saw me and invited me in. He said "Sometimes seeing a child's happiness makes you happy." and it has. Whenever I saw a child enjoying themselves with their parents, I became happy. Because they had something I didn't. They had a father who would go out and play out in the open instead of staying in his study and only playing with him inside the house or in the back yard.

My mind went numb for a few moments after philosophizing in my head and realized that the car wasn't moving. I sat up and saw the front cars empty. I panicked and jumped out of the car. Where had the gone? I stood up, nearly falling over from the speed of jumping out and looked around, supporting my self on the car door. We were parked in a parking lot. The sky was dark and the only lights were the street lights illuminating the area. The place was very...crowded. I saw no people though.

Paranoia began taking over my system. Lecter is somewhere around here, in one of these cars. I looked at every car around me and saw no one in any of them. I checked a second time. Then a third. Then I came to the conclusion that he kidnapped my friends and was eating them somewhere. I began to panic and I looked around frantically. Looking for them. John. Jacob. Anyone.

I caught sight of a large building. It was huge. It reminded me of the mall back home. I darted toward it. Maybe they were inside. Maybe Lecter was eating them inside. Maybe they were dead inside. I had to find them. I ran through the many cars. Red and blue and green and black flying past my vision. The building was so far away. Why was it so far? Were they even in there?

Thoughts of Lecter chasing me through the parking lot suddenly flashed through my mind and I began running faster, gasping for air to replace the air being consumed by the fear in my blood. Curses flew through my head angrily and I nearly fell over twice. At last, I made it to the building and I ran through the doors, then stopped. It was a mall, but not the one at home like I had envisioned it to be. This mall was huge. Stores lined the walls and beyond. I walked through the hallway I entered and looked briefly through the windows. Mannequin heads with wigs. Mannequins with stylish new fashions that I personally found disgusting. All sorts of products being displayed.

I walked into the main room and found three floors. At first, my hopes fell. How was I supposed to find them now? I looked around for a clock, but couldn't find one. Oh well, might as well start looking.

~Elsewhere...~

I watched her walk into one of the stores. A shoe store, if I'm not mistaken. I smiled and walked just above the store. She was on the first floor while I spied on the second. If she walked out, I would see her. I smiled as I waited for her to emerge from her hiding place. Like the old hide and go seek games we used to play. Reine, her mother and I. She would always find a hiding spot, then change it when she felt she had to, preferably somewhere her mother and I had already looked so we wouldn't check a second time. Quite smart of her, really. I was proud of her when I realized she did this. She was only three when she did this so it was a quick development that she figured out that she can go somewhere someone wouldn't look a second time. She'll return to that store if she finds out I'm here, I guarantee it.

I saw her walk out after finding out her friends weren't at the store. Silly Reine Drop...her friends aren't even here. They're already in Philadelphia under the impression that she's still sleeping in the back seat.

~Back with the Reine Cloud~

About a half n hour later, I checked all of the stores on the first floor. None of my friends are here. I sighed, not wanting to check the top floors. I was too exhausted. I sat down on the bench and just sat there. The first thing that came to mind was Lecter.

Why the hell was he still after me, huh? Was my mother not good enough? And why the hell did I leave her there all alone with the bastard? Fear, that's why. Intuitive fear. I was too afraid to think. He pulled out a gun and fired! Hold on, Reine, think about this. He fired at where your foot would've been. So he wasn't necessarily aiming at your midsection or anywhere that would kill you, just scare you, right? Or did he realize that I was trying to fool him? Or did he want to immobilize me so I couldn't run away. What kind of gun was it anyway? I remember it being a bit longer than a regular pistol. Silencer? That's why John and Jacob didn't hear the gunshot, I guess. OR it couldn't have been a real pistol or something. Gah! Pick a different topic! My head hurts from thinking about this...

But I couldn't stop thinking about what Lecter was doing. He was a psychologist. He knew things about people that no one else would expect to realize. AND he knows my name. So that means he knows nearly everything about me if that book was right. He's a real psychological genius.

Then I thought about it.

The phone conversation.

"_Tsk tsk tsk, Reine Drop."_

HOW THE HELL DID HE KNOW THAT NAME??!!

I breathed in calmly and exhaled a bit more erratically. There's only one explaination to this...

He knows my father.

~One floor up...~

Oh, she must've been thinking about the phone conversation. How much money would you want to bet that she hasn't thought of the option that I'm her father yet?


	7. The Sick Joke

Okay, Reine, don't panic. It's not like Lecter is coming after me because of my father, right? Oh no he just thought my father tasted good so he'd come after me!...OR he went after dad because mom was his crush and he wanted her all to himself and-

"Excuse me, are you Reine Starling?"

I jumped visibly as a stranger stood above me. He jumped back slightly as I jumped. "Oh, I'm sorry I didn't mean to scare you," he apologized. I nodded and took a deep breath, then let it out slowly.

"Sorry. I'm just...yeah I'm Reine, who're you?" I asked. It's not common when someone walks up to you asking who you are.

"Oh, I'm Carl. Uh, I met this man who told me to give this to you specifically." He handed me a small phone and I took it.

"Uh, thanks. Who's it from?"

"He told me not to tell."

_Lecter_... Carl smiled and walked off after I thanked him. Just when Carl was out of sight, it rang. I jumped. I'm very jumpy these days. I looked at the number. YES! There was a number there instead of PRIVATE! You slipped up, Hannibal. You slipped up bad. I flipped open the phone and tried to hide my excitement.

"I did that on purpose. Th number on that phone, I mean."

_Dammit..._ "I expected that."

"No you didn't. You were just celebrating the fact that I 'slipped up', right Reine Drop?" he asked me. I gritted my teeth as a way to calm my nerves. I stood up and started walking.

"How do you know my father?" I asked him.

"Oh, your father. Is this about the nickname, Reine Drop?"

"Answer the question, Lecter."

"Well since I expect you won't think of it too far into the future, I'll tell you a secret. Would you like to hear it?"

I sighed and looked around. "If this is a joke-"

"No joke, Reine. Tell me what you know of your mother's acquaintance with me, tell me what you know so far."

I clenched my fist. Talking to him was just about as easy as talking to a stubborn donkey. It'll hear what you say but it'll do something else than what you told it to. Then again, it might get me somewhere with this guy. He wants to tell me a secret. "Okay, fine. I know she was a trainee when you two first met. She was asking you about Buffalo Bill."

"Good girl, but that's not what I'm asking about. What do you know that's **not** in the books?"

I paused. He thinks she talks about him? "Nothing. All I know if from that book."

A silence. "Oh, she doesn't talk about me then. What a shame, I was hoping she'd let you remember me."

"Remember you? I've never met you besides the part at my house...why did you shoot at me anyway?!"

"Shoot at you? Hardly. If you had been paying attention, little Reine Drop, I wasn't aiming at you. I was aiming at the ground so you wouldn't move. Obviously, that didn't work out so well. By the by, why were those two boys in your room? You're far too young for two at a time."

I twitched. "EW! That's just disgusting! One, I'm not interested in them one bit. Two...I was researching something for a project."

"Don't lie to me, Reine. I can see that you were nervous about answering that question." Then I started looking around frantically. If he can see my face, I can see his. Look for a guy with a cell phone, look for a guy with a cell phone that looks like Lecter! He's probably trying to be inconspicuous. Look on the third floor. He would be up there so I would probably miss him. "Don't try to find me either. See, Reine, you can run but you can't hide. I'll find you because I know where you'll go. I know where you go because I know you far better than you think."

"Oh? And why is that, Lecter?" I growled. No one knows me as well as I do. Not even him. And I hate it when people think they do. It annoys me because then they think they know everything in the world. I've had people tell me that I'm very hard to figure out and when people say they have...I don't know it just pisses me off.

"Simple, Reine Drop. I'm your father."

I laughed. I couldn't help it. First, this guy thinks he knows me, then he thinks he's my _**father?!**_ "Bullshit!" I yelled. "My father never wanted to talk to me when he left, why would he come after me now?!"

"Because it was an excellent time. The F.B.I. are loosening their search patterns for me. I can take you and your mother and take you with me to a different country. Your pick, Reine Drop."

"You're kidding me! This is a sick joke, Lecter. One of the sickest jokes anyone's ever tried to pull on me. And that's saying something, you son of a bitch!"

I closed the phone and ran. I just started running. Outside. A store. Home. Philadelphia, any-fucking-where. This guy was not my father. He is not my father. He can't be my father! He'll NEVER be my god damn father!

I ran outside the store and I slowed to a stop. I looked up at the building. No windows. Good. If he wants to find me, he'll come out this way. Once he runs out, I'll go back and search all the other floors for John and Jacob. Then again, they could've gone out of the store and went back to the car. I should check the car. Check the car.

Again, I started running for the car, then I stopped again just before I hit the paved road. No! I can't go. I can't go! He'll expect it and he'll come after us when we all drive off. I have to make sure he thinks I'm still inside. I'll go back in! I have to throw him off. I can't do anything else BUT throw him off.

So I did. I ran inside and into the shoe store again. He won't expect it. I was already there. I ran in and hid behind one of the shelves, then I watched. I watched the entrance for Lecter. Then, unexpectedly, I stared off into space. I thought about when I was little. My father and I would play hide and seek all the time. I hid in places and he would check somewhere nearby where I hid, then when he wasn't around. I hid in that place. Because he wouldn't expect to find me there. He always found me though.

Always found me...always found me...always...he knows where I am. If he really is my father, he knows where I am. I began to panic. I wasn't safe anywhere. I could hide, but he would always find me.

A tap on the shoulder caused me to jump up a mile. I turned around, expecting Lecter, but it wasn't. It was a heavy black man. "Excuse me miss, are you alright? You've been hiding here staring at the entrance for about ten minutes now," he said concerned. Ten minutes? I sighed.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine. Just hiding from someone..." I looked at him more closely and I thought I recognized him. "Do I know you from somewhere?"

"I was just about to ask the same thing!" he said, smiling. "Do you know a woman named Clarice Starling?" he asked me. Impulsively, I began nodding.

"Yeah! Yeah, she's my mother! You are...um..." I struggled for the name. I was so close to a name but it wasn't coming to me.

"I'm Barney. And you were only a four year old when your mother came to me for advice on how to find your father." I felt my heart stop. THIS was Barney! This was the guy John, Jacob and I were looking for!

"Barney! Oh my god I was looking for you! I came all the way from Nashville, Tennessee to find you!" I said, embracing him in a hug. I was so relieved. Someone I could most likely trust! Oh thank god!

"You were looking for me? Did your mother send you?" he asked a bit confused. It was okay, though. I'd be confused too.

"No, I'm actually gathering information on a man named Hannibal Lecter. I know you were associated with him before, so could you answer a few questions for me?" I asked. Barney started to laugh.

"Are you sure your mother didn't ask you to find me? She came to me looking for clues on where he was and a bit of comfort from a friend. Poor girl," he told me. "My goodness, you've grown. You probably can't drive yet can you?"

Uh oh, here comes my explanation for a long story. "It's a long story." I didn't feel like explaining myself. He nodded.

"That's fine. I don't live too far from here, actually. I've only just recently moved," he explained. I smiled.

"Would you like to continue this conversation there?" I asked. He smiled.

"Of course. How did you get here? Bus, taxi, plane-"

Then my phone began ringing.

I looked down at the number, then all the excitement in my body went floating away.

Lecter.

_Open it,_ my mind commanded. _Open it now. You have to. He won't leave you alone if you don't._

I opened it. "I see you've met Barney. Tell him I said hi, won't you?"

I sighed irritably and looked at Barney. "I came by car. My friends-"

"are in Philadelphia. Thinking you're still in the back seat."

"dropped me off here so I can get food and stuff here and walk around Philly looking for your address." I lied.

"Quick thinking, Reine Drop. Don't let him worry. He's bad under pressure."

Barney nodded, eying the phone suspiciously. "Well, I took a bus here so we can take one back together. Do you have money?"

"Oh, tsk tsk tsk. You left the money with Johnathan, didn't you?"

"No, I don't. I forgot the money in the car." I said, hanging up the phone. Barney tilted his head.

"Who was that?" he asked. I sucked on my tongue briefly to relieve some stress.

"Prank call," I lied. "Do you know if there's an ATM around? I think I have a few dollars in my account."

"Over there." he pointed. I walked away and Barney followed. Once I was at the ATM, I looked up as it was loading everything and processing my money. Then I froze. That's how he knew what I was thinking most of the time.

Lecter was on the second floor the whole time.


	8. Are You Out Of Your Mind?

"So Lecter was pretty cooperative if you sum it up," I asked Barney. We were at his house, drinking tea. He and I were sitting opposite of each other, talking about Hannibal Lecter. It was interesting to know he had cooperated most of the time. Barney made it clear that Lecter did slip up.

"Yeah, I suppose so," he concluded. "The times he slipped up were…how to put it…gruesome, to put it lightly,"

I nodded, looking down at the tea briefly, then back up at Barney courteously. "What did Lecter to when he slipped up?" Barney looked at the ground, debating whether to tell me or not, at which I leaned forward and smiled. "I think I'll be able to handle it."

Barney sighed. "He dislocated a nurse's jaw, ate her tongue and eye and most of the skin on her face…I'm sorry I shouldn't have-"

"No, no it's fine. I just didn't expect this if he was so cooperative." I calmed him. What made him apologize was my face. I became frightened as I imagined my mother's face being eaten by Lecter. Her face bleeding profusely, her eyes dangling from her sockets, screaming in pain as she felt the sting of his teeth eating her tongue, the dangling of her jaw as she tried to bring it up to bite him back…

"Well, that's what we thought. Honest to god, everyone thought he'd be very good but after that everything fell downward. You see, some men tried to find out where he buried a victim of his with a drug I can't remember, and he gave them a recipe for potato chip dip."

Interesting, I've never heard of that. Now for the real questions that might help my mom. "Barney, do you know of anything I can use for leverage against Lecter, like in a hostage situation. Do you have anything I can blackmail him with?" I asked. It was a bold question, and I was struggling with finding a different way to ask the whole time, but nothing came up, so I had to ask it straight out.

Now it was Barney's turn to ask some questions. I could tell from his facial expression. Confused, almost saying "Are you out of your mind?" but that's not how he said it.

"I don't have anything, I don't think anybody has anything. Why are you trying to find something to use against him?" he asked me. That was a basic way of saying it, if you asked me.

I sighed. I had to tell him. I sucked in a breath, then someone knocked on the door. Instead of forming words, I jumped and made a tiny squeal, immediately thinking it was Lecter. He had the guts to get me in front of people now. He was going to kill Barney. He was going to kill Barney. He was going to eat his eyes and his face and his tongue and dislocate his jaw!

Barney stood up, almost as if he understood why I was afraid of the person at the door. Barney walked over and peered through the peephole. Then he looked back at me and smiled. "It's not who you think it is," he soothed and opened the door. Immediately I jumped up and tackled the person at the door.

"JOHN!!!" I screamed. He fell backwards against the opposite wall, laughing.

"Where the hell have you been? Jacob and I were looking all over the place for you! Did you leave the car back at the rest stop or something?!" he yelled at me. Jacob poked his head from around the corner of the hallway, and then walked into Barney's apartment.

"Hey, dude, what's up? Got any food?" he immediately asked.

"Jacob! That's rude. Sorry about him, Barney. He's an idiot," I apologized for Jacob while glaring at the idiot.

Barney laughed. "It's fine. Take what you want from the kitchen," he said. Jacob celebrated and went straight into the kitchen. I let go of John and reentered the apartment. John followed, closing the door gently behind him.

~Meanwhile…~

Those boys found her. It took them long enough, honestly. John was far too worried on the way to Philadelphia, so from what I gathered, they turned around and went around the rest stop they lost her at looking for her. What I did was I took her from the car while they were off getting candy bars from the snack machine and put her in a car I stole that looked very similar to their car. Then I stopped at the mall and watched the car and followed her inside the mall when she went investigating, just like her mother would do.

"Dr. Lecter-"

"Call me Hannibal, Terry." I corrected my pupil as I watched the four get situated. I felt him stare at me, then he sighed, showing that he looked away.

"Hannibal, if Reine is your daughter, why don't you just go and talk to her? Maybe she'll believe you if you look her in the eyes in person?" he suggested. He was very bright, but not knowledgeable.

"Oh, I can't do that. You see, she's too much like her mother. Eye contact won't change very much. Besides, Terry, I want her to want to talk to me first. This is where you come in," I pulled a piece of paper from my pocket and held it out behind me for Terry to take. He stood up, his combat boots thumping against the wood floor, and took the paper from my fingers gently. I smiled as I pulled my hand back and kept peering at my daughter across the way. "If you would be as kind as to slip that under the door of the apartment before Barney's guests leave, that'd be greatly appreciated."

Another sigh. "If I do this, can you make dinner tonight? A real meal?"

Another smile from my face. "Yes Terry. I'd love to make dinner tonight."

~Back to Barney~

John, Jacob, Barney, and I were sitting in the living room, finally settled down. My head was hurting from John's yelling at Jacob and from what I could tell, Barney was getting annoyed too. Now we were all settled. Jacob had his sour cream and onion potato chips, John had his composure, Barney had his quiet, and I had my questions.

"So you said you didn't have anything I could use against Lecter?" I asked. Barney nodded.

"Using knowledge against Lecter is something he's most likely already considered. He'll be able to counter whatever you're planning," Barney stressed. John sighed and looked at me.

"What do we do now?" he asked. I looked at him seriously.

"We keep looking around for any information we can use against him. We absolutely need leverage against him. To save mom."

Barney tilted his head and furrowed his brow, concerned. "What's happened to your mother? Is she alright?"

"As far as I know, she is. I just know that one day I walked into the living room with Lecter making out with my mom. He shot at me and missed and I ran off to find something to use to save my mom."

"I don't get it." Jacob put the now empty chip bag down on the table neatly and swallowed the building saliva in his mouth. "What if he already ate your mom? Then this would be a waste of time, right?"

"You know how my mom called me that night at the motel? She didn't seem hurt. Then I called her after you totaled the car. She wasn't hurt and Crawford was with her. THEN Lecter called me, so he can't be around my mother if he could see the number on the payphone I was using. There was no way to anticipate us crashing into the pole beforehand," I explained, convincing the person who needed to be convinced most, myself. Images of my mother smiling at me as I came home with a bunch of money for capturing Lecter caused me to look forward to the rest of my adventure.

Barney sighed heavily. "Wait, I'm confused. Tell me the whole story."

I sighed, paused to look down at the floor to gather my words, then I looked up and began. "I went to school one day and my friends here showed me this book with Hannibal Lecter in it. It mentioned my mom in it and I wanted to research him and stuff cause of my mom. So after school John, Jacob and I went to my house and googled him. We found my mother again and we found him on the FBI's most wanted list and stuff. Then we wrote down all the people we needed to talk to about Lecter, including you, Barney. So my mom came home but she came home with someone I didn't know so I went downstairs and I found Lecter…kissing…my mom…" I stopped to remember that image, shuttered, and continued my story.

"So he pulled a gun and shot at me and missed and I ran upstairs and closed the door and we all escaped through the window because we thought he was going to eat our faces or something and then I fell and passed out and I woke up at John's and Jacob's house and we decided to run away and find you to ask him how to save my mom in case he were going to go after her and stuff. THEN…" I took a deep breath.

"We crashed into a street sign and Jacob drove off to get some gas and then I called my mom and she was okay and Crawford was with her and then afterward Lecter called the payphone and said he read the number and that he was nearby and then he hung up leaving me paranoid and then Jacob came back and I went to sleep in the back and then I woke up at the mall and I looked all over the place and then Lecter got this guy to give me a cell phone he paid for and then called it and then we talked and he played a really sick joke about saying he was my father and then I hung up then I hid in a store then I found you and here I am."

Barney stared at me for a moment, then smiled. "I hope you find what you're looking for then," he said. I tilted my head to the side slightly.

"I lied to you at the mall. Aren't you mad that I lied?" I asked him. Barney shook his head.

"No, you were trying to protect yourself and I. I don't mind lying in that kind of way," he professed. I smiled and John stood up.

"We should get moving," he suggested. "Crawford probably got the FBI to come after us since we're teenagers chasing a serial killer,"

"Well, the serial killer is technically chasing us." Jacob laughed. I rolled my eyes and stood up, as did Barney.

"No, no stay the night. Figure out where you're going to go, get some money, gather supplies, and then leave. Besides, I'd love the company," Barney requested. I sighed, looking around the apartment. It was slightly messy and a quick clean up. I saw some empty boxes from Chinese restaurants and plates left out in the open. I imagined a night in this home, Barney and no one else. He must be really lonely.

"Yeah, we can stay here for one night, but then we have to leave before they find us. We need this information," I said, making it quite clear that we would only stay one night. Barney smiled and began to set up places for my friends and I to sleep.


	9. The Call and the Note

BB789: Sorry about the delay. School ended and I had this file in my personal school file. We use an H;. I don't know if anyone else does but its a file that only the student who owns it can use. I had to upload the chapter onto fanfiction since my flashdrive is dead and I couldn't get on the internet for a few days. School ended on Tuesday. Today is Friday. So I got it up at last and now maybe I can actually write. There still might be a slight delay but I promise I'll try to make it shorter.

Oh, and thank you so very much for the reviews. They make me happy. :)

~At Barney's Apartment~

At about nine at night, I felt like calling my mom. She wouldn't trace the call on me, would she? Would Crawford answer the phone instead since he's probably comforting her? Ever since my father left, Crawford has come over. He never knew who my father was, just that my mother loved him. Crawford became a kind of father figure to me, really. Although Crawford and her never had anything go on between them, they are near best friends like her friend Mapp. She told me to call her that so many times I forgot what her real name is. Mapp was a babysitter. Her daughter, Amelia, was my friend. Then Mapp's family moved to Arkansas and we just talk to each other on the phone. Wait, I was talking about calling my mom.

So I did, with the permission of Barney, of course. I dialed my mom's number, with Jacob and John sitting next to me of course, and listened to the ringing of the sound.

"Hello?" My mother sounded very upset.

"Hey mom, you alright?" I asked her, smiling, happy to hear her voice.

"Oh my-…yes. I'm fine. Where are you?"

"I can't tell you. Hey mom, could you do me a favor and not trace the call? I have a really good reason to be running around so-"

"What could possibly be a good reason to leave me at home worrying?!"

I paused. Do I really want to tell her? She was worrying about me, alright. I could hear it barely leaking out of her words.

"I'm…looking for information…on Hannibal Lecter."

"REINE HANNAH-ANNABELLE STARLING!!!"

"What?! I'm trying to find some leverage on him so I can make sure he doesn't hurt you or me or my friends or anybody! Plus, it'll help the FBI on finding him, right? So I'm doing people a favor!"

"Well what have you found out already, hmm?! What progress have you made so far???"

"Uh, I found out what he did over in the Baltimore Mental Hospital…"

"That's not anything he's afraid of people using against him, Reine. Besides-"

"You spoke to him before, you interrogated him. You solved the Buffalo Bill case because of him. You-"

"No more of Lecter! No more, just come home! If you're afraid he'll hurt our family, he won't!"

"HE PULLED A GUN ON ME, MOM!!! HE FIRED THE FUCKING GUN AND HE'S CHASING ME AROUND RIGHT NOW!!!"

"I KNOW! I KNOW HE'S CHASING YOU! HE-"

I couldn't take it. I hung up on her, burying my face in my hands. "What is her problem?! What would she do if someone pulled a gun on her, huh?! Oh yeah, she's an FBI agent. She can just use her own," I hissed under my breath. I stood up and walked to the door. "I need fresh air." John and Jacob were dumbfounded and they knew that I wasn't to be bothered. So they stayed put. Barney followed their example and watched me walk out the door.

~Back at the Starling Residence~

"Reine?! You better not have hung up this phone!" I screamed into the phone. I was far too worried for my daughter to be off looking for Lecter! I mean, what will she do when she finds out that he's her father? How will she cope?

The phone rang again. My heart jumped as I pictured Reine crying on the other end, just like every other time it rang. I picked up hurridly.

"Hello? Reine?" I cried into the phone.

"She's fine, Clarice, she's fine."

_Lecter…_

"Hannibal! Hannibal, Reine is-"

"Looking for me, I know. She's under the impression that I came to hurt you and her."

"You fired a gun at her, Hannibal, what the hell were you thinking?!"

"I was not aiming at her. I was aiming at the ground to scare her. I didn't anticipate that she'd run away."

"Well start anticipating, dammit!" I screamed. I couldn't have been more upset. Tears were falling from my eyes like waterfalls. My daughter was looking for her father, and running away from him at the same time. I was fixated on the fact that she was going to get hurt, emotionally or physically.

"Clarice," I heard his voice say soothingly. My eyes flooded with tears. I haven't heard him say my name like that in years. "I'm watching her. She's perfectly fine. I won't let anything happen to her. I promise you."

I covered the phone and let out a loud sob. I held the phone away from my face as I tried to quiet my cries. This was embarrassing, so embarrassing…while I'm on the phone with Lecter too…

I brought the phone back when I felt I could speak again. "Okay…I'll hold you to that."

"My brave Clarice…I'll bring her home myself. Then we can all live in a nice house in Florence. Reine will go to a good school and you and I can stay home and make up for lost time, I promise."

I smiled happily and imagined the days that would go by if that were to come true. "But I must get Reine first. Let her figure out what she wants about me and I'll bring her home later, when she starts to believe that I am her genuine father." and then the dial tone rang in my ears, and I cried again, except in happiness. She was alright. Hannibal was alright. Everything was going to be alright.

~Meanwhile…~

I leaned on the railing of the apartment building's floor balcony. I smelled the dusty air of Southern Philadelphia. It smelled like gun smoke and cigarette smoke every now and again. I hated the smell of gun smoke. I remember when my mother made me shoot a gun at the FBI headquarters in Tennessee.

"_Mom, do I seriously have to fire this thing?" I asked her once. She was handing me a gun that I would practice firing with._

"_So you can protect yourself in case something happens at home and I'm not there," she told me. She positioned me in front of the screen while fitting my ear phones on correctly. She pointed the gun in my hands at the target and fixed my head so I was looking at the target the right way. My vision looked down the barrel and at the target. My arms were stretched out in front of me, getting more and more tired by the second because of the constant effort of keeping my arms straight and making sure they don't shake._

"_Okay, fire," she commanded. I didn't fire. The fact that my mother wanted me to kill someone so that I could be safe just scared me. It freaked me out. I saw the target and I imagined someone who was misunderstood. What if that burglar just wanted to feed his family and couldn't find any jobs or anything and can't get any money any other way? It's just him caring for his family. What would his family do if I killed him? Did his parents teach him how to kill someone to protect him? What would they think?_

"_Reine, pull the trigger." my mother gently urged me. But I couldn't. I couldn't stop thinking about the family that didn't exist. Why was I thinking about something that didn't even exist? It was just so hard not to think about what that family might go through if that happened. What if this man was innocent and it was just a false accusation. What if he didn't mean to do what he did and he just needed the money to do whatever he did? Then my thoughts got deeper. What if the family could just barely afford food and he needed to steal money to just feed his family? All he wanted was to just help them._

_Someone nearby fired their gun and I flinched, accidentally pulling the trigger as well. I felt the shock of firing it and caught myself from falling since it caught me off guard. I stared at the cardboard criminal I just shot. In the stomach. I was so shaken up from that. My mother didn't make me go again unless I wanted to, which I never did. It took me a couple of days to tell myself that he was just sent to the hospital and he won the lottery._

I closed my eyes and thought about that day. I remember that I met John and Jacob a couple of days after that. They made it all better actually. You see, we were all working on a class project together and I just simply asked 'How does a criminal get a better life after getting shot?' and they said something along the lines of sheer chance. He could be found innocent in court, win the lottery, and get a miracle job. I smiled as I thought about someone getting a great life like that.

"Psst."

I looked to my left and saw a little note some feet away and a figure clad in black walk around the corner where I couldn't see him. I furrowed my brow and picked up the note. It was folded about four times hamburger style. I opened it and the first thing I saw was really neat handwriting.

_Hello Reine Drop,_

_I'm sorry I couldn't give you a call, I don't know Barney's number and I haven't a phonebook with me.  
I feel we should talk in person at last. We haven't really done that yet, have we? At your mother's house we only  
exchanged threats and angry glances. I hope you don't take any of that too personally. I was only seeing how you would react.  
And I'm not disappointed at all. You handled everything quite well. Save who you could, including yourself, and  
see what you could do later. I can't say just like your mother. She's trained by the FBI to risk her life to save others. You, Little Reine Drop,  
you ran and now you're trying to find a way to bring me down, find out about me so you can save your mother. But I'm a bit confused.  
What if I had eaten your mother? Would you still have gone after the ever so eluding information about me?  
I'll bring it up when I see you. How about the park not too far from there? No worries about a time, I'll see you leave the apartment._

_Until our meeting, H._

_  
Was that Lecter who left the letter there? I sighed heavily and crumpled the paper in my hand. I was not meeting him. He'll eat my face, won't he?_


	10. The Major Meeting with a chance of Snow

_Dammit, dammit, dammit, dammit, dammit..._were the only words passing through my head. This was bad. I was actually _considering_ going to meet him in that damned park. I didn't even know where the park was! And why can't I throw this crumpled paper across the room?

I was angry and confused. When I walked back into the room, I looked out the window for any sign of Lecter. That means he's watching me if he wants to wait for me to leave. I couldn't see him through any of the windows. Calling the police would be a mistake, seeing as I'm a runaway. Then Jacob and John went off asking me questions on what happened and stuff. It took me about a half an hour to tell them that everything was fine AND to keep them from seeing the note all crumpled up in my hand. Then we all ate dinner and went to bed. I elected to sleep on the couch while the boys slept in the guest room. Barney obviously had his own room so he slept in that. And all night, in my hand, was that crumpled piece of paper, silently urging me to go meet him at the park soon. They were all asleep, no one would see me sneak out.

And there I go telling myself that it'd be alright to leave. What if they came out and saw I wasn't there? They'd loose their trust in me if they found out I was off meeting him. They may be my best friends, but they're also very paranoid. Especially if their running around with me like this. Ah, this sucks. If they leave me alone, I'll keep going on my own. I'll go on buses and stuff.

I laid on the couch, just staring at the ceiling. Ugh, fine! Fine fine fine! I slid out of the blankets Barney had given me and laid it on the couch as if someone were still sleeping there. I walked over to the window and looked down since I had no idea where he was. I held up the stupid paper and threw it out the window. There's his damn sign. I turned around, put on my shoes and jacket, and quietly opened the door and closed it behind me. Boy am I going to regret this!

I sat on a bench in the dark, shivering. I had no idea it was going to be this cold. Oh yeah, it's January! January in freaking Philly. What a smart idea! I rolled my eyes at my own sarcasm and brought my feet up onto the bench and tucked my knees under my chin. Where was he? I was getting really tired. I laid my forehead on my knees and closed my eyes. From afar, it may have looked like I was crying, so to avoid anyone from walking up to me asking what was wrong, I laid down completely on the bench so it looked like I was homeless. People wouldn't come up to me now. They'd think 'Ew a homeless person. Let's go this way!' or something.

"If you were tired, Reine Drop, you could've just slept instead of came here."

I sat up violently and, as you may expect, saw Hannibal Lecter standing there in a jacket. Ha ha, I have to tell you this. I thought this was hilarious. The first thought I had when I saw him was "He looks really warm..."

"I couldn't sleep," I half confessed and lied at the same time. He smiled a weird smile. It was like a true smile but at the same time it's a sure you couldn't smile. I smiled slightly back because I had realized what my first thought was and looked down at the ground. Then I remembered that I was taking up all the space on the bench, so I swung my legs over the side and moved over for Lecter to sit down. He gratefully accepted the invitation to sit down and I looked down at the ground the whole time. It may not look like it, but I was a really nervous person when I spoke to people I'm not completely familiar with. My mother says it's this anxiety thing I have. We nearly got a therapist for it but I managed to convince her that it was nothing to worry about. Well, now I'm beginning to wonder if I needed that therapist. Because now I need to be at the top of my game since I'm talking to a cannibal.

So we just sat there, silent as ever. All I heard were the sounds of city cars driving by, people off in the distance talking, and the wind. Oh, and my thudding heart. It was the loudest thing thus far. I mean, what would you do if you were sitting next to a cannibal that could eat your face in any passing moment?

Then he chuckled, which completely caught me off guard. I looked at him. "What?" I asked him. He shook his head and looked at me.

"I can't remember the last time I just sat down with you," he smiled. I lifted an eyebrow. I forgot what he was talking about. Then I rolled my eyes and sighed heavily when I remembered.

"Oh no, don't you dare try that again," I growled. "It's a sensitive subject, my father, okay? So don't even try to pull it again. It won't work, just like last time." I didn't even give him eye contact. If he was going to do that, he didn't deserve it. He needs to seriously go away if he's going to do this to me.

"Reine," Lecter placed a hand on my shoulder, but I turned around and stood up, glaring at him and finally staring him in the eye.

"No, **Lecter**, let me tell you something. _If_ you really were my father, you would have stayed. You would have stayed at home with my mother and I and you would've led a life with us instead of abandon us. You would have stayed to show me all the things a father needs to teach his daughter! You would have stayed if you loved us! But you aren't my father, so of course my father wouldn't stay!" I shouted. I glared at him for a moment, then turned around, walked two steps, then just stood there, holding myself because of the cold. Then I thought about what I said. I don't think I had a point in that. I just basically told him that my father left me and my mother and that if it were him, he would've stayed. I sighed as I thought about it for a second. What the hell would make me think that he would stay with us if he were my father? My shoulders fell as I realized that I just seriously failed at telling him off. And he noticed. God dammit he noticed. How do I know? He asked.

"What makes you think-" I cut him off. I didn't want him finishing that question.

"Ah okay I messed up my words! I get it! What I mean is..." I trailed off painfully. I had no idea what I meant. So I stalled by saying uh more than necessary. "Well, I mean...uh..." I stuttered. I couldn't find the words that would fit what I meant, and that made me mad. I couldn't believe I just messed up that badly. But at least Lecter was nice about it. He didn't laugh and he let me try to find my words. I stopped saying uh and sat down again, very angry at myself. "I don't know." I finally said. He nodded.

"May I try?" he asked. I nodded and turned my head in his direction, but kept my eyes on the ground. "I think you just want to emphasize that your father was that kind of man to leave their family for no reason what so ever and that I didn't seem like that kind of person, right?" he told me. I sighed and thought about it for a moment. He did seem like the loving father type. He has that face. I buried my face in my hands and shrugged.

"I don't even know what I mean anymore," I said. "I don't know what I'm even doing out here. I don't know what I'm looking for, I don't know why I'm talking to you, hell I don't even know why I just spilled my soul about my father to you!" I yelled, still keeping my face in my hands. Lecter put a hand on my shoulder and sighed. And again, silence except for the city. Then I felt a chill on my head. I looked up and saw snow. Those innocent little puffs falling from the sky. I felt one land gently on my cheek and I felt like crying. I missed my father. I missed him so much. I thought about that time when I asked him what snow it. I remembered when my mother and father were arguing about him leaving. I remembered when I stood out in the snow as he drove away without saying goodbye at such an early time. Honest to god, I loved my father. I hated him too. I would always think about that time he told me about snow whenever they fell from the sky so gently.

I felt Lecter's arm stretch around my shoulders and he pulled me toward him in a hug. I just sat there, looking at the snow...and thought.

"_That's snow, little Reine Drop,"_

"_'Ms. Clarice Starling, a renowned F.B.I. Agent, interrogated the cannibal while searching for the rampant serial killer, Buffalo Bill...Some say he could've had feelings for the trainee and some say he could've playing around with her mind...'"_

"_Tsk tsk tsk, Reine Drop.."_

"_Daddy was a very nice man. The people he helped were troubled."_

"_But I couldn't stop thinking about what Lecter was doing. He was a psychologist."_

"_Simple, Reine Drop. I'm your father."_

My heart thudded in my chest violently. I really felt like I was going to cry. I breathed in sharply by accident, revealing that I was about to cry, and I stood up, breaking from his grip. "I gotta go," I said quickly and started walking away.

"Reine," he called to me. I stopped and looked at him, trying desperately to hold in the tears. He looked at me with gentle blue eyes and stood up. "I would never hurt you or your mother. There's no reason to look for something you won't find." I looked down at the ground, then back at him.

"I've got more than one thing to find out about you. You told me your answer to one of my questions and you wouldn't tell me jack about something that could be used against you as blackmail." confessed. I stared at him for a while though. "So don't follow me and try to stop me, will ya? Go home...wherever that is for you." and with that I turned around and walked away back to Barney's apartment, tears pouring down my face like heavy rain as I tried to convince myself that it was just a joke and that I needed to keep going.

~Back at the bench~

I watched her walk back into the apartment building and smiled. She was beginning to believe it. That's good. I was hoping for that. I didn't mean to make her cry though, but it could be necessary to realize. I looked up into the sky as the snow fell more and more. The snow must've triggered a memory that meant a lot to her. When I left? Or maybe when I told her about the snow? I don't know. I pulled out my cell phone and called Terry.

"She's back in the apartment." were his first words. "Did it go well?"

"Yes, it did. You sound tired, go to bed, Terry. Let her run a few miles on her own and then we'll play a game of hide and go seek with her and her friends." I told him. Terry chuckled on the other end and then he went silent.

"Uh, I think she's crying. Are you sure it went well?" he reported.

"Yes, it went fine. She's just beginning to realize is all." and I hung up. She missed me, I knew that much. It was as plain as her pale skin. She wanted to believe it wasn't me because I'm a murderer. I'll call Clarice tomorrow and tell her to expect a call from little Reine Drop.


	11. Stop, if you love me, stop

Honestly, I don't know what to say.

Everything I had thought about Lecter was slowly falling apart. It was near humiliating. When I got home that night, I began to question why I was even running around. If my mother was fine, and Lecter was chasing me and leaving my mother alone, why the hassle? It's just a weird way to be going about it, you know? I know my mother's fine. I know Lecter's tailing me and my friends, pestering me about horrible things that just break my heart. And I know that he won't hurt me, my friends, or anyone I travel with. So why do I bother? He probably didn't tell anyone about something the media would spread all over the world.

The next morning, I woke up to a slight shaking of my shoulder. It was five in the morning. I looked up and saw John with his bag over his shoulder. "Come on, we have to leave." he said and walked over to Barney to thank him for the hospitality while Jacob smuggled some food from the kitchen. Barney had to go to work, so he was already awake. He didn't work at Baltimore Mental Hospital anymore. He worked at the one in Philly. None of them could ever know what I did last night; talk to a serial killer.

We walked out of the door, saying our goodbyes to Barney and got in the car and drove off. I was in the front seat. I wasn't tired, so I stayed awake, governing the radio. They had really bad Cd's in the car. At least, the music on them was everything that I didn't like. So I took control of the radio for the car trip. Before I knew it, we were already back on the highway. Then I realized, I forgot who's next on the list. I looked over at John, who looked really tired. He kept looking in the rear view mirror. I looked behind us, but there wasn't a car there at all. I gently put my hand on his shoulder, which caused him to jump. I could see the dark circles under his eyes. It looked like he was in pain.

"You okay?" I asked him quietly. Jacob burst his head through the space between the two front seats.

"Yeah, you're a bit jumpy." he said, stifling a chuckle. I nodded with him. John looked back at the road.

"It's just that Lecter guy, is all. I mean, he's stalking us...you I mean." he stuttered. "I just don't want him to, you know, catch up."

"John..." I trailed off, unable to think about what to say. This was awkward. I can't say he won't catch up, that'd be a lie. I can't say I know he won't hurt us, that might imply that I've talked to him. I sighed and looked away. "Never mind. We'll be okay." I said quietly. Jacob pushed back into his seat and looked out the window at the right side mirror at me. I looked back at him and he waved. I waved, but didn't smile. Then I remembered the original question that I was going to ask the paranoid driver next to me. "Where are we going anyway? I don't know who we're visiting today." I confessed.

"Oh, uh, I don't know. I'm just driving." he said, shrugging his shoulders. I sighed and looked back at Jacob. "Do you know?" Another no. I sighed and faced forward again. How can we be driving nowhere? What direction are we going, anyway? I pulled out the list of people to interrogate and studied them. We already got Barney, all that's left is Will Graham, Chilton...wait, Chilton's dead. Lecter ate him. I found a pen in the glove compartment in the car and crossed out Barney and Chilton. So it's Graham and Jack Crawford with an if in parenthesis. Crawford's back at home, and I'm not going back there. I'm too far ahead. So I guess we have to find Will, the one who caught Hannibal Lecter. I sighed and looked out the window, and by a wonderful coincidence, a sign signaling a rest stop showed.

"Go there. We should figure out where to go." I said. Just then, something began vibrating. I felt it against my leg, but I wasn't sure where it was. I looked all over the car and Jacob looked around the car seat.

"I thought you broke your phone." he said chuckling. I stopped. I did break my phone. But if it's not my phone, what was it? Then it clicked together. It's the phone Lecter gave me at the mall. I reached into my coat pocket and pulled it out, flipping it open.

"Very clever, little Reine Drop, leaving before sunrise. What a clever plan. Where are you off to next, hm? You're going the wrong way for Jack Crawford." he taunted. I gripped the phone and looked out the window, in the mirror, above the car, anywhere he could be, but he wasn't anywhere. He wasn't near us at all. Did we really just cheat out of Hannibal Lecter's eyes? John looked at me worried.

"Who the fuck is that?!" he yelled at me. I flinched, uttering a small cry. Lecter caught this.

"Was that John yelling? Tell him I'd like to talk to him when he's able to." he said. My heart jumped. What would happen if I gave John the phone at all? Because of my inability to answer John's question, he yelled more.

"REINE! Who the FUCK is that?!" he screamed. I flinched again, staring at John. His face was growing ten shades of red and his face was twisted in anger and fear. He knew who it was, why was he asking me? I shook it off.

"Just drive, he wants to talk to you when we get to that rest stop." I said calmly. He only snapped.

"How does he know we're going to a rest stop?! He screamed louder. Lecter growled on the other line.

"I can basically hear your heartbeat through the phone, Reine. He's scaring you, right?" he said calmly. It kind of sounded like he was losing his temper. I ignored his question, though. I had to answer John so he wouldn't yell at me anymore. In truth, it did scare me. A lot. He seemed like he was going to hit me if I took anymore time in not answering him.

"N-No he-"

"You're protecting him! Aren't you?!" he shouted. Jacob interjected himself in this, something I wish he didn't do.

"Hey, John, calm down man-" he said, putting a gentle hand on his shoulder. John swerved to the side of the highway and stopped the car completely, unbuckling his seat, got out of the car, then opened the back door and dragged Jacob out.

"JACOB!" I shouted and I climbed out of the car too. I looked over the roof of the car, watching John beat the crap out of his twin brother. He's never been this way before. What the hell's wrong with him? "JOHN STOP IT! STOP IT NOW!!!" Lecter was talking to someone, but it wasn't me. I didn't care. My best friends were fighting and John was going completely mad! After John finished with Jacob, he tossed him in the middle of the road while a car was coming. I screamed and looked away. There was a loud screeching and then the opening of a car door.

"Jesus H. Christ, what the hell do you think you're doing?!" the driver shouted. I managed to look up, hoping that there wasn't a sickening crack of bones and skulls and I didn't just miss it. Thankfully, there wasn't a bloody mass on the road, just a beaten Jacob, a pissed off guy climbing out of a car, and a car, obviously. John looked at the guy, who had very dark brown hair, almost black, and was pretty tall, about 6' 2" if I had to guess.

"I'm doin' what I want. You just keep driving and leave us alone." he shouted. I ran around the car for Jacob, but John caught me by the back of my neck. "Give me the damn phone!" he shouted in my ear. I looked at the phone, and saw that Lecter hung up. Fear coursed through me. I couldn't believe that he-...I started clicking away on the phone, opening the recent calls file of the phone. I saw the number that Lecter called me from and I called it. I put the phone to my ear and listened to the dial tone, but something else happened that I didn't expect in a million years.

There was ringing inside of the other guy's car.

The man outside looked at the car, then right into my eyes. My eyes widened as his did. I looked at the car. Tinted windows, but I could make out a figure moving around in there. Then the ringing stopped, and so did the ringing in my phone. The voice that spoke next came from both inside the car and in my phone.

"I guess this was mere chance that you would call me, then?"

I dropped the phone and stared at the car as the door opened. And, just as nothing could get worse, Hannibal Lecter climbed gracefully out of the car as if he were arriving by limo to a movie viewing. I felt John's hand shake against the back of my neck, then he tightened his grip and dug his nails into my skin. I uttered a small cry by accident and John glared at the man who claimed himself my father.

"You're Hannibal the Cannibal, right?" he asked, confirming his suspicions. He nodded. The man on the other side of the car stuffed his hands in his pockets and walked over to Jacob. At first I thought he was going to hurt him, but instead he helped him up and got him to sit on the hood of the car. He had a black eye and a split lip along with a cut on his forehead and a busted arm. I looked from Jacob's aid to Lecter, who was strangely calm and collected.

"I am. You're Johnathan, I presume?" he asked in the same manner, but not the same tone.

"Sure." he said hesitantly, tightening his grip on the back of my neck. I reached my hands back to try to make him stop, but it only made it worse. I tried to calm my face down because it was making all sorts of pained faces, but somehow, my face remained in a pained state. Lecter looked at me and I at him, then I looked away. This was just too weird.

"You may let go of her now. There's no need for it." he said gently to John, who only tightened his grip.

"She might get away and leave me here so you can devour my face, you fucking cannibal!" he shouted. The guy helping Jacob looked at John, giving him a warning, then looked at Lecter to see his reaction. He faked emotional hurt.

"That's not polite, calling others names. Although, Johnathan-"

"Shut up! My name's not 'Johnathan', it's John. Get it right!" he shouted. Lecter remained calm under this pressure.

"John," he corrected himself slowly. "Do you care for Reine?" he asked him simply. John stared at him for a while, then looked at me.

"She's my friend, yes." he answered hesitantly. His grip became more gentle and his nails weren't digging into my skin as much anymore, which was a relief. I still kept my hands on his wrist so he wouldn't try to rip off my skin again.

"Do you usually harm your friends and scare them half to death?" Lecter asked him. John began breathing quickly through his nose, then let me go after a moment. I ran over to Jacob, right past Lecter and next to the guy who was helping Jacob. The beaten boy looked at me and smiled.

"You okay?" he asked quietly. I nodded.

"You?" I asked in return. I mean, he was the one who had his ass kicked. He nodded.

"Says him." the guy helping him said. "He's got a black eye, a split lip, and a huge scrape on his forehead from the tumble onto the street. As I looked over at Lecter, I realized that he was moving closer to John noticeably. I could tell John noticed too; he was shaking and looking from him to me and back to him. Once Lecter was standing in front of John completely, he grabbed John by the collar of his shirt and slammed him into his car. I yelped and stood up completely facing the two. Lecter was making sure that John couldn't do anything to hurt him by securing his legs and letting go of John's shirt and pinning his arms to the car. Then Lecter began to play with his food. He leaned in close to John's ear, whispering incoherent words. I couldn't hear him. John's eyes widened as Lecter drew back and lunged at his neck, although Lecter's teeth and the skin of John's neck never met. He drew back again and his teeth snapped at John's ear. John began to whimper as Lecter drew back for the real kill.

Then I remembered what my mother said the night before my father left.

"_Remember when you asked me...if I would ever say 'Stop. If you love me, stop'? Well...I'm saying it now." _

So I said it. To this day, fully knowing that I still doubted the fact that he was my father at the time, I have no idea why I said it.

"STOP!!! IF YOU REALLY ARE MY FATHER, STOP!!!" I shouted. And sure enough...he stopped. Lecter turned and stared at me real hard, and then backed away from John. The boy stared at me with large eyes as Lecter stared at me with caring eyes. I only stood there. You have no idea how badly I just screwed up everything. I threw off my friends, I threw off Lecter, and I threw off myself.

Now what?


	12. Confessions and Idiocy

**BB789 – I'm really really sorry about not updating. See, my mother and I had to share a flash drive for the longest time and she began misplacing it. A lot. This chapter and others were on it and it was becoming exceedingly difficult to complete this chapter. Finally, my father had gotten me my own and after a couple of weeks, I managed to move my files onto this flash drive from the other one.**

**Also I've noticed (and also been told) two things. One, Lecter's eyes are maroon. I've started writing this fanfiction before the books and after watching the movies and I was unaware of the fact that he had maroon eyes. Sorry. Should we say he has colored contacts or should I go back and fix it? I think I'll fix it later. Two, Lecter would probably name his child something more simple than Reine, which means "queen" in French. Let's say Clarice named her, shall we? It's a bit more easier than going through every chapter and changing the name.**

**Sorry for the inconvenience.**

**

* * *

**

Of course, the first thing that happened was Jacob bursting out in laughter. The very thing he does at the worst of times. I sighed heavily and looked back at him with wide eyes. I still can't believe, after all these years, that he can still laugh like this at the wrong time! John's eyes were wider than I've ever seen them. The guy helping Jacob stared at me, then sighed heavily and turned around. Lecter stared at me with wondering eyes. I, the embarrassed little girl, stuffed my hands in my pockets and looked down. "I, uh, didn't really plan anything after that." I confessed quietly. Jacob was nearly rolling around on the ground.

"When...when I said that you...ha ha ha...were turning into Lecter...I was only joking, you know!" he said between breaths. I shut my eyes tightly and just started to think. There was no escaping this. I have to say something. Do something. What was there to do? What's going to be the serious outcome of this all? Off to a mental institution because my father's a cannibal who needs to be there anyway? How am I supposed to stop him from eating people in there?

"You must've thought something would happen, Reine." Lecter said flatly. I felt my face go five shades of red as I shut my eyes even more tightly, my head looking downward.

"I...didn't know what would happen." I said very quietly. I was surprised Lecter heard me, even though no one else did.

"I wonder where that trait came from..." he said mockingly. I sighed heavily, not looking up but opened my eyes a little bit.

"I get it. It came from my mom." I said angrily. He really doesn't need to make this reference every time I remind him of my mother.

"No, this time I'm wondering." he pointed out. I muttered "Whatever" under my breath and looked around. I couldn't have been more embarrassed. This was a serious situation. For everyone. Well, maybe not the other guy. I looked over at the other guy and saw him talking on his cell phone. I became the paranoid one.

"Who's he talking to?" I asked Jacob, who didn't know. We all stared at him as he spoke into the phone.

"Yes, there's a boy on the ground bleeding and two others arguing...No, they're too far...Yes...I don't know, I don't...Yes ma'am." and he closed the phone. "Doctor, we have to leave." he informed Lecter. He looked at me. "You keep you and your friends here." he said as he climbed into the car. I picked up Jacob off of the car and he kept an arm around me as if he couldn't stand, which was a flat out lie, but I didn't really care at this point. In fact, it hardly crossed my mind until later.

Lecter climbed into the car and waved at me. "Say hello to your mother for me." and the car sped off. Everyone stared at the car...well..._I_ stared at the car. I think the other two were busy staring at me. I think so because John said "You're Lecter's daughter? He's the father that left you when you were four?" I turned around to face him and nodded. Then I thought about Jacob's arm. I threw it off of me and leaned on the car. Stay here, they said. Why stay here? Why not trail me anymore?

I looked down and saw the phone I dropped. I stared at it for a moment, then I picked up the phone and dropped the phone in my pocket, then climbed into the driver's seat and locked the doors when I was alone inside. Besides the fact that I was going around for information on the world's most dangerous cannibal loose in the world, I didn't have a license, but I had a permit and I was very good at driving...but I left my permit at home. John was trying to open the door and Jacob was at the window.

"What the hell are you doing?!" he screamed at me. I put on my seat belt without looking at them directly, turned off the parking break, and held the break down so I wouldn't be going backwards down the hill. I put both hands on the steering wheel and placed my forehead atop my hands. I listened to their screaming. They were yelling at me. They were yelling at each other. It was really upsetting. When there was silence at last, I looked out the window and saw Jacob trying to pry the door off. He saw me and stopped. The look on his face was just the worst thing I've seen the whole trip. His eyes were all watery, tears nearly overflowing down his red cheeks. His hair was in his face, showing the struggle he made of trying to get back into the car. His black eye was all swollen from the tears and his lip was twitching to keep himself from crying. I didn't bother looking at John, Jacob's face was enough.

I revved the engine and drove away, leaving them there for someone to pick up. I knew Lecter's friend called the police. There was no doubt about it. Who was his friend, anyway? He was a bit stoic and creepy. He had pretty dark hair and had an Italian accent that seemed to be suppressed. Why was he with Lecter anyway? Was he working for him or something? I don't think anyone would want to _work_ for Lecter. I mean, I guess it depends on the situation. I did hear that he used to live in Florence before I was born, Lecter I mean. Maybe he met him there? I don't know. I'm not that good on guess work.

I drove along until I got into a rest stop. I had to ditch the car. Chances are that when John and Jacob are picked up, they'll be so pissed off that they'll give away the car. As much as I didn't want to, I had to steal another car. Christ, this day keeps getting better and better. I pulled in and dragged my things from the car and the money, which was still in the driver's compartment. My life sucked right then and there. There was hardly any denying it. I also had to travel light. It'll be easier. Luckily for me, I found a motorcycle. Running. I looked around for anyone that looks like they ride a motorcycle and frowned when I realized I had to steal it. I didn't like stealing, wronging people much. So I pulled out about five hundred bucks and put it on the spot where the motorcycle was after I moved it. The idiot also left the helmet. I strapped my bags to the back of the motorcycle and put the helmet on. Then I sped off, smiling. I loved motorcycles. I've never rode one before, but I've always wanted to try.

It was like a regular bike. Tilt to turn except turn the handle to go faster. What also bothered me about the bike was the loud putting. From what I could tell, the guy who owned this bike was one of those people who either liked it loud or wants to be noticed. She didn't want to be noticed, but it was good in case someone didn't see her coming and knew to slow down when they heard her in front of them. He'd gotten the bike to do this purposely. That's alright, I suppose. No one would recognize me under the helmet and I should probably try to travel away from the police just in case. I had stolen a motorcycle and if the guy didn't just like the money I'd given him in return, he'd report me.

So I took extreme caution. I looked around for tinted windows for cops in disguise and I managed to plug my iPod into the radio as I rode on, listening for a bulletin for the missing motorcycle. I also had plans to call my mother, but I didn't feel at all comfortable riding into a rest stop where a police car might reside. So I had to ride. Ride until dark and pull over in the woods or something. I'll figure something out...

* * *

I was never planning to eat her friend anyway. Johnathan scared my daughter, I wanted to scare him. I didn't expect her to burst out like that. It was actually very helpful. Perhaps now she understands that I am her father a bit more. When will she come to realize it? Terry was pouring over some maps, trying to figure out the route she had planned on taking, but the problem was that I doubted they all stayed put or at least one of them went on. I doubted they'd leave Reine behind, she couldn't drive and she wouldn't let herself get left behind. Besides, she was the one with the questions and the boys had no reason to go after all these people. So were they all going? Or all stopping? Terry and I are staying at a motel for the night, to let Reine get her bearings and so we know what happens next.

"I can't find a real direction. They were headed north and no one you should be worried about lives north. In fact, I doubt anyone you know live up north." Terry announced, digging his hands in his pockets. I leaned my head back and thought for a moment. Who would they go after? Will Graham lives in Florida, I'm sure. Ever since his family left him, he's lived in that apartment since he was kicked out, correct? I hoped it didn't have anything to do with the Christmas Cards.

"Then they didn't plan it, wouldn't you agree?" he asked him. Terry shrugged.

"Your daughter, Doctor."

"_Hannibal_, Terry. Call me Hannibal."

"Sorry, Hannibal." Terry plopped down on the bed and stared at the ceiling. "But I don't see anywhere they could've been going!" Hannibal pulled out his phone and started dialing a number. "Who are you calling?" Terry asked, curiosity growing.

"My wife." he said as the phone rang away. It rang five times.

"Starling." she answered. I wasn't regretting calling her cellphone at all. She sounded as strong as ever. Just the woman I fell in love with...

"Hello Clarice. Did you get a call from our daughter?" he asked. It wasn't like him to be straightforward, but it was a necessary action. Clarice paused for a moment.

"No, but her two friends were apprehended not too long ago. They're in this room, Lecter!" she shouted into the phone. He thought for a moment. If her two friends were there, then where was Reine?

"May I speak to Johnathan?...no I'm sorry...Jacob?" I asked. Johnathan would overreact, Jacob seems to have more sense than his brother. Jacob would most likely want to talk to me, seeing as he's the more relaxed, more laid back brother. Clarice debated the situation silently, then sounds of the phone being handed off echoed through the hearing piece.

"Uh...hello?" Yes, Jacob. Just the one.

"Hello Jacob. I'm going to be very forward with you and you must answer my questions truthfully. Don't lie, or I'll know."

"Got it. Shoot."

"Was Reine picked up by the police with you?"

"No. She drove off. Took my damned car and drove off."

Unexpected. She can't drive.

"Did you report her? The car is still out there, by chance."

"Yeah they found the car at the rest stop we were going to rest at and get our bearings. We left in a hurry to throw you off. John's idea." A distinct 'hey!' was heard in the back. "Apparently some guy's motorcycle'd been nabbed-" and then a 'WHAT?!' in the back as well. Clarice had apparently just found out that Reine, a fifteen year old girl, is riding through the country on a motorcycle. "Uh I had no idea where we were going after that."

"That's alright, Jacob. Would you mind telling me who exactly was on your list of people to visit?"

"Uh...let's see...John do we have that list we made for...no?...okay uh...I know we were going to Florida to see some guy named...OW HEY LET GO!!!" A struggle echoed through the phone. There was shouting from the two boys, including Clarice, and then a thump.

"Listen, cannibal! I don't know how you came to be Reine's dad or anything, but I'm fucking telling you right now I'll _kill_ you if you try to kill her or eat her or-"

"John, John listen to me. As insane as I have been told, I would never consider eating my own daughter. What's the point in asking Clarice to have her if I'm going to eat her later anyway? Hard work wasted, if you ask me, John." I told him. "Now John, I'm going to ask you something pretty important so I can make sure she doesn't get hurt, do you understand me? I've followed you three to make sure my little Reine Drop doesn't get hurt or abused. I've lost her now. I need to know if you knew where she was going."

There was a very long pause on the other end of the phone. Lecter almost thought that Johnathan had hung up, but after a very long and tense silence, Johnathan responded. "We were going to stop at the rest stop to make sure we knew where we were going. I think we might've been going after Will Graham next, but I don't know."

"Who else was on your list?"

"Uhh...I know we put Jack Crawford down. But he's right here, so there's no point since I have no idea what to ask...That's as far as I know, if there were any others I mean."

"Thank you John." and I closed the phone. I turned to Terry, who was sitting up completely and looking anxious about Reine's whereabouts. "She's on a motorcycle heading to Florida. To meet our dearest Will Graham, a dangerous decision, since he harbors most of his hatred towards me and would most likely want me to suffer. He'll hurt her if she gets to him before I get to her." I said sadly. Terry was already on the phone arranging for a flight to Florida.

* * *

It was dark. I was in a forest. It had been about ten hours on the road and the motorcycle either needed gas or needed to be dumped. A new car would be smart, but I was starting to get used to the motorcycle. I could just steal someone else's license, but would that take too long? No, there was a rest stop within walking distance and back. Only two miles away. I did need food, I was starving. I started walking and pulled out the cellphone. It still had juice in it, but not that much. Maybe, if the store at the rest stop had phone batteries for whatever kind of phone I had, I'd buy that too. I decided to take a risk and call my mom. She was probably dying of fear right about now.

I dialed her cell phone number and she picked up, fearful and scared. "LECTER IF YOU CALL THIS PHONE ONE MORE TIME-"

"Mom?" I asked, slowing my pace, then starting back up again. Wow it was really dark in the forest. There was a pause, then a loud sigh.

"Oh my god...Reine! Where are you?" she asked.

"In a forest. That's all I'm telling you. Are you alright? Did Lecter call the house?"

"Yes, he was looking for you. Your friends are here too, they're asleep in the room next to this one. We're all in a hotel. In Pennsylvania."

"Did you tell Lecter where I was going?"

"Well he asked the boys. They guessed Florida, but I don't think he knows where. Do you know where in Florida you're going?" she asked me.

"Well...no...but I'm thinking I'll start in Marathon." I guessed. There was a loud sigh on the other end.

"Honey, how are you going to...WHY ARE YOU IN A FOREST?! DID YOU CRASH?! ARE YOU HURT?!"

"Mom! I'm fine! I pulled over and-"

"You've been riding a _MOTORCYCLE!!!_" Oh yeah, that.

"Um, yeah. I can explain..."

"You aren't worming your way out of this one, Reine Starling!" I flinched at the last name. If Lecter were my father, would my name be Reine Hannah-Annabelle Lecter then? The curiosity was burning the insides of my brain, and it was hurting.

"Uh...mom I have a pretty important question to ask you." I felt my heart pounding, not wanting to ask the legendary question.

"...what?" She sounded nervous, like she knew what I was going to ask and didn't want me to ask it.

"Uh, you see Lecter's been following me and you know that and uh, well I was...I mean he's been telling me that he's...well...my father...is he...you know, telling the truth? Is he my biological father?"

There was a very uncomfortable pause on the other end of the line, then it sounded like mom sat down on the couch.

"I think I need to tell you a story...about Lecter and I."


	13. The Agent's Story

"When I was in the academy training for the F.B.I., Jack Crawford, my superior at the time, had asked me to get Lecter to fill out a psychiatric survey to better understand him. It was hard to ask of me, I wasn't so keen on talking to Hannibal 'the Cannibal' Lecter. There were so many rules; don't tell him about yourself, don't let him inside your head, don't accept anything he wishes to pass you, don't touch the glass, don't approach the glass, don't give him anything he could use to pick the lock, etc. When I got there, I met Dr. Chilton, I met Barney, and I met _him._

"Doctor Lecter was a very courteous man. I would never have expected it, to be honest, his politeness. I was polite back, he and I had a conversation about Buffalo Bill and his drawings on the walls, he spoke of Florence. He drew them all from mere memory...anyway, I asked him to look at the survey and as he did, he began to insult me. My second grade shoes, my perfume, my handbag, everything. I asked him to turn his insight to himself to see what he was, and then said that he was afraid to do it. He became interested then, I think. He asked me about Valentines Day during my visit. He gave me a clue for something and when I got there, I found...a severed head in a jar. Benjamin Raspail, a victim of his. He was helping me with the Buffalo Bill case and I became involved with the F.B.I., much like Will Graham was with the Red Dragon.

"I was stuck on the case, so Crawford and I bribed him with false promises. He could walk on the beach or swim in the ocean under S.W.A.T. team surveillance once a week for a year. He and I started a...a game of some kind. Quid Pro Quo, do you know what that means?

"It means 'something for something'. I ask a question. He asks a question. He wanted to know about myself in exchange for information on Buffalo Bill. He asked me about my father, and I told him about how he was shot and killed when I was ten and I was moved to a ranch. It wasn't until after that visit that Dr. Chilton had found out about a fake deal and called the Senator of Tennessee, who confirmed it to be lies. Lecter was moved to Memphis for information, but he gave them false information. I went to interview him again and I told him about a childhood memory I had about...lambs...and he never gave me the information back. He apparently wrote on my copy of the case file and gave me clues. I accidentally found him, Buffalo Bill, and killed him for self preservation.

"When I became an agent, Lecter called me about the lambs, then went off to kill Chilton. Ten years later, I'm put back on his case and he finds it hilarious. He was in Florence, at the time. So he contacts me and sends a perfume. I asked for tapes of the perfume shops and found him, and when I called Pazzi, an agent over in Florence, Lecter answered. Pazzi had been trying to catch Lecter himself and he was just about to be murdered when I called. You see, Pazzi wanted to catch him for the ransom and I'd seen him log into the F.B.I. most wanted list. When I saw the perfume shop tapes, I saw Lecter and knew he was in Florence then, as was Pazzi. When I asked Lecter if he were dead, he hung up. He was coming back to America.

"When I realized this, I became scared slightly. Then again I wanted to see him again, you know? Have you had that feeling with Lecter? Like he just leaves you wanting more? That's what happened with me. I could never stop thinking about him. Ever. At least thirty seconds of every day, he appeared in my head. I was almost excited to see him, to be honest.

"One day, I was told that a note was sent in, a poem. Paul Krendler had a problem with me and I suspected he was being paid to do this. I was suspended from duty and sent home. I began working without their permission. I knew I was going to get in serious trouble, but that didn't matter to me. Lecter was coming back to America. That was all I could think about.

"Then, as I was sleeping in the living room of my home at the time, Lecter called my house. He hinted that he was in the house earlier and had told me to change the battery in my cell phone and go somewhere. He and I spoke and, I can't believe I did this, but I asked him how he's been. I rebuked it somehow, but my mind was in such a jumble that I can't remember anymore.

"Lecter led me to the mall, where there was a carousel. Do you remember the carousel I took you to when you were seven? We were on vacation, visiting Ardiela, do you remember? That carousel. Lecter took off and gave me a pair of shoes. I can't believe he did, they were so nice. When he hung up, and I walked outside, I found him being hauled away into a black van. It was very...upsetting. I've anticipated seeing the man again and I finally see him, but it's a kidnapping. I tried to stop the van, but it just kept going and I couldn't do anything about it. When authorities got there, I was told to stay at my house. Well obviously, I didn't. I went chasing him because I knew just exactly where he went.

"So I went to find him. I snuck in and shot the men who were tying him up. I stormed in and I got shot just as I shot one of the guys. I more or less passed out and I'm pretty sure Lecter carried me out. Then I woke up in a dress with a stitch in my shoulder. I was angry that he changed me, but I walked down the stairs, hardly able to stand up. I saw Paul at a table with Lecter and…it's a bit fuzzy but I was seated and…honey, don't scream…Lecter ate Paul's brain. I mean, he took out a piece of his brain and fried it and fed it to Paul. He died later.

"I tried to get Lecter when he had his back turned, but he saw me coming and pinned me down. He asked…he asked me if I would ever say 'stop, if you love me stop.' I said 'Not in a million years.' and he made out like he was going to bite me, eat me up, but he stopped and said 'That's my girl.' and…kissed me.

"I…I can't believe I did this…but I handcuffed him as he was and he cut his own hand off. He fled, trapping me inside the house. I managed to get out but when I chased after him, he was gone.

"I didn't see him for another year. He'd been hiding in the US until he could speak to me again. He and I…well, we had you not that soon after and we lived somewhere off away from society. He absolutely loved you. He wanted to name you Mischa, but I had none of it, I'll have you know. I named you Reine because it means queen in…French I think. Also, you were absolutely infatuated with thunderstorms. You would cry and cry and cry without the sound of rain lulling you to sleep. Ha ha, Lecter even bought you a rain stick so he could get you to fall asleep. And your middle name, Hannah-Annabelle, well I think it kinda sounds like Hannibal. Hannah. Annabelle. Hannah starts with H and Annabelle sounds like Hannibal…okay, so I was all doped up on pain killers when I had you. I'm sorry.

"Anyway, when the FBI got an anonymous tip that he was here, we were forewarned by a friend and he left. He never spoke to you over the phone because, well, I suppose he wanted you to forget him. I suppose he wanted you to never know about what he does, what kind of 'monster' he was. I at least wanted you to know you had a father that cared for you so much and that he was still out there, but maybe I should've never told you about him and just said he died. Then again, you were four and you remember most of the things you and him did together. I don't know, Reine. I just don't."

My mother began to cry over the phone. The whole discussion had broken her apart and I had stopped moving. I was right outside the rest stop and I was sitting on the curb, watching the lights of the cars drive by as my mother tried to quiet herself. I waited. So it was true. He was my father. I found it hard to believe, but then again, I kind of knew it. I should call Lecter. Eventually. Soon. Dammit, I should call him now. I could almost feel my own tears well up in my eyes. I shouldn't cry, I should be happy. He came back. Then I felt absolute hatred. I felt absolute hatred toward myself. I ran away. I didn't recognize his voice. It was my most cherished memory of him. His voice speaking to me, calming me down, telling me everything was going to be okay.

"Mom?" I said quietly for her attention. "I have to go." and I hung up. I began to dial Lecter's number...but something stopped me. I stared at the phone, at the number marked down for me. I closed the phone and walked inside. Nothing inside the store told anyone that I was a fugitive. I was very cautious with the security cameras though. I pulled a couple of snacks from the shelves and a pair of sunglasses.

The clerk wasn't even there. I just rang it up myself and walked out. I didn't have to pay, but I left a note on a sticky note behind the desk saying "You snooze you loose. Try to stay in the store next time, won't you?" I have no idea what possessed me to do that, but at the moment, I felt like rebelling against the world. I felt...numb. I just abandoned my morals as if they didn't exist and went about my life. I needed to figure something out. Why? Why was I going so far out of my way to go meet Will Graham? I found out that my father is, biologically, Hannibal Lecter. This was ridiculous. I needed to sleep on it. I really did.

I found my way back to the motorcycle and sat on the muddy ground, leaning against the tree I parked it on. I leaned my head back, and I drifted to sleep.

Ignorance is bliss, after all.

* * *

~Starling Residence~

Agent Starling was terrified for her daughter. She was only fifteen! For god's sake, fifteen! She shouldn't have been running around trying to find something, whatever that something was! She left for leverage, leverage to make sure of what? Hannibal had threatened her and made her run, so she's probably after something to defend herself from Hannibal. The fact that she's his daughter is leverage enough, something the media would die over. That would humiliate me too, but would Hannibal even care after it's been said? Reine won't tell anyone associated with the media anyway, its not her way.

Clarice sat back on the pale blue couch against the wall, darkened in the shadows of the moonlight, and buried her face in her hands. What the _hell_ is Reine looking for?

"Ms. Starling?" Clarice looked up toward the threshold dividing the living room from the dining room. Jacob "Is she alright?" he asked. She nodded, although she wasn't sure.

"She's in a forest. She's riding a motorcycle...God, no mother should go through this, this knowing that her daughter can crash and die without a moment to..." Clarice looked at Jacob, her eyes watering and swollen from crying. But they were also wide and filled with a confused surprise. Jacob was smiling, not as if he were laughing at a joke, but a genuine, confident smile.

He walked over to the nervous wreck of a mother and sat next to her, the smile still on his face. "You know, when I heard about Lecter, I didn't really think about him as a person, but when I saw him standing up for her when she couldn't stand up for herself against John, I realized something." Jacob looked at the blank television sitting silently in the dark, plugged in and turned off, wasting electricity.

"Reine is a strong person. She knew he was a cannibal who might not hesitate to devour her down to the bone if she got on a real bad side of him and knowing he was chasing her around, she still didn't give in. She looked for everyone, researching every person who would help her find whatever she's trying to find. And if Lecter is trying so hard to protect her from something that could get her killed, if he's trying so hard that he would get in the way of God himself, then no fucking motorcycle will kill her. Nothing will at this point, she's so driven to figure this thing out, whatever it is."

Clarice stared at Jacob and thought about this. It was true, the both of them, Hannibal and Reine, were both very driven individuals. If Hannibal wanted to hurt her, he would've done it already. In fact, he would've shot her on the spot before she ran off. He seems pretty driven to keep her safe. Reine seems pretty driven to get whatever she's trying to get.

But Hannibal isn't inhuman. He's not a god, he's not immortal, he's just a man like every other male human on the face of the planet. Clarice rubbed her eyes dry and stood up. "Fuck this, I'm going to Florida." Jacob stood up quickly, a bit too quickly really. He nearly stumbled back onto the couch.

"Ms. Starling, are you sure? We're not sure which town-"

"Marathon. We'll start there. Call Crawford and tell him to meet us at the airport."

Jacob was absolutely appalled. Was this happening? "Where in Marathon are we going? We aren't even sure where to start!"

"Will Graham's apartment. We'll need the address."

* * *

~Reine Starling-Lecter...~

The next morning was hellish. Traffic was a bitch and I was terrified someone would report the license plate on the fucking bike. No police stopped me, so I guess I was alright. The scenery was beautiful, absolutely gorgeous. I was absolutely amazed as I drove down the road that I had to stop at the beachside, to watch the waves pull in back and forth. I listened to the crashing of the waves hitting the side of the beach, slipping up and feeling the sand with it's salty fingers, rushing around me to feel the sand I sat upon, crashed with the tires of the motorcycle, then receded to savor the feeling of sand under the long stretch of the foaming water.

Interesting.

I stood up and left the motorcycle and the helmet. There was no need to hide anymore, I was almost there. What was I looking for? I don't know. But I knew that I was going to go home after this. There was no need to keep going. I found no reason to keep looking for information I didn't even need. I had enough, but maybe I could learn a bit about Lecter before I went home.

I don't know. I didn't know anything after seeing him and it just pissed me off. I liked knowing things, but if I'm off getting information and I don't even know what information I'm after, it pisses me off.

But first thing's first: Ask around town for Will Graham, the man who caught Hannibal Lecter.


End file.
